A Yellow Pages directory landed on my doorstep yesterday. For the past few years I’ve been sending it and similar directories straight to the recycle bin, but I wonder why they keep coming, like zombies in a horror flick.
There’s the yellow one and the blue one, and I think there’s also a grey-and-red one. I never pay too much attention, apart from wondering why there isn’t a popular environmental front to get them banned.
Any information in those global-warming titles can be found through a few clicks of the mouse. Who in their right mind still thinks this is justified?
The only argument to keep them is that the older generation, and some change-resistant individuals still want the paper version – well, let them opt in.
For the rest of us, let’s save the planet and the whole recycle cycle from this unnecessary waste.
Update:
I got the following response from Ken Clark, the Publisher of YP Talk – “The voice of the Yellow Pages Industry”:
Not sure what possessed you to express a desire for an environment drive to eliminate printed Yellow Pages, since you clearly are not aware of numerous key facts about those books:
1) No trees are knocked down for the paper used in those books. About 40% of the content comes from recycled white material, and the rest is the surplus wood chips and residual you get when you miss a round tree for rectangular lumber.
2) Those books were referenced nearly 14 BILLION times last year, so they clearly get used.
3) Millions of small businesses find them to be a tremendous way to market their businesses. They closely monitor the ROI they get from those books, and spent some $32 billion on ads in those books.
And you never use a book? Wow. Why not? They have great maps, coupons, and they use no power as they sit there waiting to assist you in your next purchase. Maybe you should check them out.
I can understand that a revenue-line in decline, in the face of growing Internet use, is trying to protect itself from the inevitable. Notice no mention above to the Internet. This is very similar to the trend in the newspaper industry, but newspapers are holding an open discussion about it, rather than a propaganda campaign to try and protect their interests (if advertisers think the Internet is the way it’s going, they will only pay to be included in the Internet version, not the countless tons of paper that are produced every year).
In the UK about 22 million directories are dumped at our doorsteps every year (source). The industry is obviously keen to prove that this is a green exercise. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide…
PS. And about those great maps and coupons – How about putting all of these online? Wow. why not?
What we find is that it isn’t an either/or situation. Don’t assume your search habits are representative of anyone but yourself. Lots of people use both and many people don’t have access to the Internet during their work day. Propaganda? Not so much. Just some facts, go to www.ypassociation.org.
FYI, the best way to opt-out is to go directly to the publisher either via their site or by phone.
And maps, coupons, etc. ARE available in the online Yellow Pages – SuperPages.com, YellowPages.com to name two. But your readers probably know that. Full disclosure, I work for the Association.
Thank you for your comment and forgive me for questioning your response. As you state, you work for the Association.
According to its own website:
1. Yellow Pages Association® (YPA®) is the largest trade organization of a print and digital media industry valued at more than $31 billion worldwide.
and:
2. The mission of YPA is to LEAD, SERVE, GROW and ADVOCATE for the Yellow Pages Industry.
I’ll let the readers connect the dots.
I can, however, congratulate you for being so on the ball PR-wise, and commenting on blogs so quickly to defend your industry. And, of course, I don’t blame you for doing your job well.
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I’m late coming across your blog post on this subject, but I thought I’d comment about the later commentator who stated that yellow pages were referenced “14 billion times”.
I’ve shown that that number is quite likely far over estimated in my article about yellow pages statistics last year.
The YP industry’s statistics were based on surveying a sample group which left out a large and growing demographic, mobile-phone-only households. The mobile-only household demographic are also quite likely to be younger consumers who are also earlier adopters of technology — the people far less likely to use yellow pages printed books at all.
From the sample group, the industry multiplies up based on overall population to come up with the 14 billion references number — since this is basically an estimate based on a relatively small sample group, the estimated error rate is already high. Coupled with missing a very large consumer demographic, we can be pretty certain that the number of references cited is significantly overestimated: yellow pages last year were used less than the year before and considerably less than previous years.
I used to think the same thing…until I actually did some research.
The EPA Facts and Figures Report breaks down numbers for production, recycling and trash. What blew my mind – and lost me a bet – are these numbers:
1. 650 Thousand Tons of Phonebooks are generated in the US each year. 36.9% is recycled (and from another source: 50-100% of a new phonebook is made from pre- and post-consumer recycled materials and green inks and dyes in the first place)
2. 3.16 Million Tons of E-Waste (computers, smart phones, etc) are generated in the US each year. Only 13.6% is recycled. (and the contents of e-waste are a lot more toxic to the environment).
At least, if a phonebook is sitting around for too long in the wet it turns back into mulch – an old computer will just leach chemicals. I literally mulched my garden with last year’s phonebook. Plus, not having one is sort of short-sighted. When my power went out in an ice storm I was reeeealy glad I had a phonebook (and a land line).
I did the math. You should see the numbers for junkmail and disposable diapers – MUCH worse than phonebooks (for some reason, 0% of Pampers are recycled… I wonder why ;-)
Just to avoid doubt, I checked, and the person who posted the above comment forgot to say that she works for Yellow Pages. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional…
It won’t work. Yellow pages will die out anyway.
My bad, really.
I used to work for a local directory, as the Internet Yellow Pages Manager (why I have done the research). I don’t work there any more. Still, my work history doesn’t change the facts. Phonebooks are not the evil everyone wants to make them out to be, and the internet is not as clean as it seems.
By the way, it wasn’t Yellow Pages, it was The Black Book from Hagadone Directories, www.blackphonebook.com
If you make me reveal myself, you’ll have to deal with the shameless plugs, um, for my former employer (so what’s in it for me?)