Why phone books make me sad
It has easily been 10 years since I have looked anything up in a phone book. I can’t imagine anyone working in an office with computer access using a phone book. Phone books are remnants of an analog era, an era where people got news from a twice daily paper, sometimes heard a busy signal when calling someone, and recycling was for new age hippies. This is why I was surprised to see a pallet of 100 phone books, being delivered to our office building. My surprise quickly turned to sadness realizing that these phone books, already outdated the second they were printed, will likely never be used. If lucky these books will end up in the recycling bin, but more likely in the dumpster. And it’s not just these 100 books, but thousands more. According to Earth 911:
• On average, 660,000 tons of phone books end up in landfills every year.
• There are enough phone books created each year to measure 106,700 miles when lined up end to end. They would circle around the earth about 4.3 times.
• By recycling just 500 books, we could save between 17 and 31 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 463 gallons of oil, 587 pounds of air pollution, 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space and 4,077 kilowatt hours of energy
Phone books are wasteful, but not only in physical materials, but also of marketing dollars and brand management. Phone books are an example of a lack of adaption to the changing consumer landscape. I don’t have warm and fuzzy thoughts of the Yellow pages as a brand, instead I see them as being wasteful and antiquated. I am annoyed that they send me unsolicited materials that I don’t use, have to figure out how to get rid of, and make it difficult to stop delivery. 78 percent of American adults prefer to use online and other services instead of a phone book. Instead of adapting to the changing communications landscape, publishers of phone books are forcing a product 3/4 of people don't want nor use. As for businesses that spend their money advertising in the phone book, all I can ask, don’t you think you can find better uses for your marketing dollars than an untargeted doorstop?
If you live in Raleigh or Durham you can recycle your phone books. Also, here is a link to find who distributes your phone book and opt-out of receiving phone books . If you live somewhere else, try to find out how to recycle your unwanted and probably unrequested phone books. You can also sign a petition at banthephonebook.org to make White Pages opt-in.
What do you or your business do with all of your unsolicited phone books?
Comments
Great post. Truer words were never spoken.
Thanks James.
Just to play devil's advocate, there are people who don't have access to computers to look up numbers. I'm sure it's a shrinking population, but they still find value in this product. Maybe they could do some kind of ordering process?
@Deborah- I understand not everyone has computer access and just like the newspaper there are people who still use the paper version, but I would like to see an opt-in practice for the 78% of the population that don't use a phone book, and even more so, I would expect phone books delivered to any white collar business won't get used. How about a postcard mailing asking to opt in or out? And in our 4 story building with 5 business occupants, do we really need 100 phone books?
What I don't like is that phone book publishers are probably misleading advertisers by bloating the numbers by how many books are published as opposed to how many actually get used and it is very untargeted without good measurable ROI, which is a waste of Ad $.
Even before I had a smart phone, I would still use GOOG411 before looking in a phone book.
I've come to the same conclusion, Allison, but it took me longer -- because while the Internet has been around for a while, it's only recently that local searches became useful.
In looking for a butcher, barber, mechanic etc., there was a long time when the net would force you to sort through chaff like sponsored listings from three counties away. To your opening comment, I'd rejoin: It's probably been ten years since I looked anything up in a giant traditional phone book, but not nearly as long since I looked something up in the slim paper directory that's pegged to my hometown.
Of course now, Google Maps is my everything, and usually gets it right. So even the little book has outlived its usefulness.
@Allison: Thanks for the phonebook unsubscribe link. I don't even have landline service, yet the AT&T delivery contractor dutifully dumped a pair of books at my door a few weeks ago.
It took index publishers too long to realize -- they're in the *information* business, not the phone book business.
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