It happens every year.  Someone drives down my street in a white van, and somehow, while I’m not looking, drops a couple of phonebooks on my front porch.

A phone book?  Really?  In 2009?

And I’m not the only one.   In fact,  according to Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org, the collective telephone directory distributors distribute 540 million books per year in the United States.     That’s about 2 books for EVERY MAN, WOMAN and CHILD in the country.

EVERY YEAR this translates to:

• 19 million trees
• 1.6 billion pounds of paper
• 7.2 million barrels of oil (not including fuel used for delivery)
• 268,000 cubic yards of landfill (less than half of directories delivered are recycled)
• 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity (about the same amount of energy the entire country of Sudan used in for ALL OF 2007!)

The madness needs to stop.    Advertisers need to stop advertising in them.  Consumers need to stop using them.   Small businesses, large businesses,   STOP FUNDING IT!   Ban unsolicited phone book delivery!

Here are some websites that are promoting banning phone delivery:

http://www.banthephonebook.org/

http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.com/

Hey phone book companies…if we want a book, we will call for one.  The amount of natural resources being used is almost criminal in this age of technology.   Not to mention somehow they keep getting away with littering my doorstep.

This video is from the UK, but you get the idea: