Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Saving the planet, one phonebook at a time.




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I recently heard about a new movement, yellow goes green, that says "no" to paper and "yes" to a paperless world by opting not to have an unsolicited phone book delivered. When I first read about the idea, I had a panic moment, "I can't let go of what is real and tangible, what if the internet doesn't work for some reason." but when I stopped to face my irrational fear in the face I realized that I maybe use the Yellow Pages once a year and the rest of the time I use the internet. We don't need them now that we live in the electronic age, they kill hundreds of thousands of trees to make them, not to mention water, oil and energy and it is a good place to start in rescuing our planet. I love this amazing planet we live on, the more I explore it, the more I love, and I think I can sacrifice the security of my paper phone book to help maintain it's beauty. Every little bit helps.

Another website involved in the "paperless world" movement, which doesn't involve sacrifice, except maybe if you love getting junk mail, is green dimes. They help you empty your mailbox of all the unwanted pesky junk mail that you look through once and then throw in the trash. Let's think about it, beautiful world with lots of trees vs. clutter in the mail box. I love easy decisions!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Time to take down the tree picture. Yellow Pages publishers use lumber residuals and recycled paper to create the directories. And most of them have signed the Yellow Pages Associations Environmental Guidelines committing to a program of source reduction, manufacturing responsibility and recycling measures.
It's important to note that last year, US consumers referenced the YP more than 13.4 billion times and that many, many small businesses depend on them to get new customers and buyers not browsers. So for the facts, go to www.ypassociation.org.
And for your readers, if you choose not to receive the books, go directly to the publisher. Most publishers won't accept third-party lists for privacy reasons. And the site you mentioned is aware of that. Full disclosure, I work for the Yellow Pages Association.

Vanessa Rogers said...

An interesting point Mr. Yellow Pages man. Therefore Readers, if you still find your yellowpages useful by all means keep it, otherwise you know what your options are. In no way is this blog trying to tell you what to do, I just thought I might provide some extra options.