Recycling the Yellow Pages
Everyone knows what the yellow pages are the section of business listing in a phone book, usually located at the back and printed on yellow paper. Once upon a time they were the place to find information about a business. Today, though, the Internet is starting to take over as the go-to source for information about businesses. Online directories are easily available and much more quick and easy to use then the traditional paper kind.
Phone Book Statistics
The yellow pages section in a phone book accounts for a large amount of paper that usually ends up as nothing but trash. Phone companies print phone books and distribute them to everyone with a landline phone. In some communities they are delivered to every home regardless of their phone subscription. New copies are generally printed once a year every year.
In the United States alone about 540 million yellow page directories are printed every year. To make these directories requires 19 million trees, 7.2 million barrels of oil and 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. That is a lot of energy, pollution and destruction to make a simple phone book, which the majority of customers will not even use. That does not even include all the waste that is produced when making these directories.
The Future of the Yellow Pages
As mentioned, the Internet is a great resource when you need contact information for a business. It allows you a quicker and easier way to get that information. There is little need for such mass production of phone books. It is true that some people will still use them, but they represent a small percentage of the total population.
A better solution would be to print a small select amount and provide them on a request only basis. This would allow those people who do not want them to just not get them.
For now, though, the best thing to do is start recycling the yellow pages. Instead of letting them pile up in your home or throwing them away, just put them in the recycle bin. Still, you know, this is not a solution. Recycling also uses energy and it is far better to prevent the waste in the first place.
Reusing Phone Books
If you are like most people then you probably have some of these old directories laying around that have not seen much use. While you can recycle them, reusing them is always better, so here are some great ideas about how you can put your old phone books to good use:
- Use them to wrap items for packing.
- Make recycled paper with them.
- Line cages of small animals.
- Put in your compost heap.
- Teach the kids how to recycle paper with this Paper Recycling Kit from National Geographic™
If you put your mind to it you can probably find many ways of recycling the yellow pages. So, use up what you have and contact the directory company to stop future deliveries so you can do your part to put an end to these directories that are polluting the earth.
