Say No To Phonebooks blog » Recycle

Say No To Phone Bawks

Katie Gardner — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:18:24 +0000

In the same week that we announced the results of a competition and survey we ran with school children about unwanted phonebooks (75% think they should be delivered on request only, by the way) we received an email with some excellent creative work from St Mary’s school in Folkestone. They did a brilliant job of finding an use for unwanted directories.

The school is currently aiming for an Eco award and so hosted an eco afternoon where each class had the task of creating something out of unwanted yellow pages. One class created a ’Yellow Brick Road’ from directory pages which every child laid along the path to the school hall. Others made origami birds, bird nests and much more. But our favourite is this amazing chicken which is now standing guard over the birds nests. The left over paper will be used for the bedding for real chickens which are arriving in April. Fantastic stuff!

If you’ve got children at a loose end this easter, why not try out some origami too?
Download Easter Origami Instructions >>

Councils wage war on pointless phonebooks

Katie Gardner — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:47:15 +0000

The Local Government Association (LGA) has called on householders across the country to wage a war on needless phone directories as they take note of the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign analysis that revealed it costs £7.5m a year for taxpayers to clear up the mess of phonebooks. You can read the full release here where the LGA explains that the ’£7.5m spent collecting and disposing of phone directories could pay for 491 teaching assistants or 259 social workers, or it could be spent filling in approximately 108,700 potholes’. Surely a much more worthwhile cause?

While this latest announcement has been picked up by the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, we think it’s worth us responding to Age Concern in the Daily Telegraph article. The ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign is calling for a system where printed directories are be available only on request and not delivered automatically. This will balance the need for directory access for the elderly with environmental and government expenditure concerns.

Over the weekend, Junk Buster have reported thousands more people have contacted Yell, Thomson & BT to ask to be excluded from future phonebook deliveries. To take action today, sign up on JunkBuster’s site and sign our petition on the Downing St website. Time is running out to sign the Downing St petition so forward the link on to all your friends and colleagues to make your voice heard.

White Pages supports opt-in campaign for phonebook delivery in the U.S

Katie Gardner — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:56:21 +0000

According to Scientific American, research from White pages in the U.S. notes that less than 16 percent of adults recycle their old or unwanted phone books. The company is sponsoring a “Ban the Phone Book“ initiative to encourage phone book “opt-in” delivery programs. The plans which require subscribers to request the books, are already appearing in areas such as Georgia, Ohio and Florida. Other areas do offer an opt-out system.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=death-of-the-directory-when-was-the-2009-08-27

The Funny Side of Phonebooks

Katie Gardner — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:34:26 +0000

Feedback on the campaign so far has been that many people just aren’t using phonebooks anymore. We have, however, found some alternative uses for the unused phonebooks that just keep stacking up in our homes….

   Ever seen a room filled with pages from a phonebook?
   One group of college students found a use for phonebooks….

Did you know you can’t tear two intertwined phonebooks apart?
Don’t believe me? Check it out!

Or fancy yourself as a bit of a strongman?
Find out how you tear a phonebook in half!

If you’ve found a better use for phonebooks, let us know. It all goes to show they’re not used for directory enquiries anymore!

Phonebook furniture?