Drilling down a little deeper on their site and we can see they’ve recently started their own ‘Generous action’ encouraging people to opt out of receiving a yellow pages directory. This action was the result of almost 150 people retweeting their instructions for opting out of receiving this phonebook recently.

This brought us to a point that’s been repeated a couple of times by printed directory advocates in - ‘people already have the option to opt-out and the numbers of people taking up this option are relatively low’. Well, perhaps if these instructions were easy to find at the front of phonebooks and on directory websites, maybe the number of people opting-out would be much higher and indicative of how people feel about these unwanted directories? It will be interesting to see how this figure increases with sites like Generous and tweeters spreading the word….

In Australia, green bloggers are claiming, “Phonebooks are heavy, thick, and mostly unwanted due to the arrival of the on-line phone directory and mobile  phones! When was the last time you used one of these paper dinosaurs? Who is sick of getting them each year, and never using them?” (Read the full Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op post).

While in the US, one pastor has claimed that understanding cultural evolution over the last decade can help communications become more like YouTube and less like phonebooks - something thats “picked up and promptly deposited in the trash”. He went on to say, “Heavy printed phone books represent more than telephone numbers and ads. They represent the past, communication forms that used to work the best, and a dog-eared determination to hang on to the past no matter what” (Read the full Barry Whitlow post).

With this international resentment growing, it’s encouraging to see that US lawmakers are going so far as to propose fines for unwanted phonebooks (Read full 9news.com article). Isn’t it time the UK government started to address the issue rather than just turning a blind eye?

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.

“Phone books: a large waste of paper, considering mobile phones are not listed, and information is accessible online, plus more.”

These are our thoughts exactly!

To see the full article click here

In episode 3, when looking for the details of a curry house, Pamela (or Pamelaaaaarrrr as Smithy would say) says

“I don’t know why they keep sending those yellow pages, our last three are still in the plastic. We just use the internet now if we want to find anything!”  (12 minutes and 50 seconds)

Nicely said Pamela.

Watch the episode on the BBC iplayer

192.com and the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign have teamed up with origami expert, Mark Bolitho, to provide three easy to follow guides that make use of those unwanted phonebooks by creating origami Christmas Tree, Star and Angel decorations.

To download the instructions and to watch the videos visit the origami decorations page.

So don’t just throw your useless phonebooks away! Why not get the kids or your colleagues involved and make something fun this festive season.

Over 75 million printed phonebooks are produced and delivered in the UK every year. That’s 62,000 tons of unwanted waste!

Did you know that the annual production of phonebooks squanders:
• Enough electricity to power 59,000 homes for a year
• 680,000 barrels of oil (the annual consumption of 67,000 people)
• Two billion litres of water, enough to fill 800 Olympic swimming pools
• £7.5 million of council waste management budget

The production and recycling process for 62,000 tons of phonebooks equates to 79,360 metric tonnes of wasted carbon emissions!

Make a stand against this unnecessary waste of resources and sign the petition supporting a centralised opt-in system for phonebooks. The petition already has over 6700 signatures with that number growing daily.- http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoPhonebooks/

The campaign has teamed up with Intuitive Media, award-winning safe social network provider, on their sites SuperClubsPlus.com and GoldStarCafe.net to survey almost 3,000 school children aged 6-14 years old*. The children have voiced their concerns by producing poems, writing articles and drawing pictures that help them to share their opinions on the waste caused by unwanted phonebooks.

Results from the survey also showed that 70% of kids think we are all responsible for climate change while 71% believe that as a nation we produce too much waste.

The children expressed their feelings on the waste caused by phonebooks including
• “Only give phonebooks to those who want them”
• “Stop making phonebooks. Only produce products on demand”
• “Produce less things we really don’t use”
• “Wasting less phonebooks is just a start”
• “Make everyone order a phonebooks each year and specify which one they would like to receive”

Carole Fletcher, MD, Intuitive Media says “This campaign has really caught the interest of the children, many of whom feel very strongly about wasting natural resources. This is one small step that will make a huge difference.” 

Dominic Blackburn, Product Director 192.com comments “These findings go to show that this generation is growing up with the internet and simply does not understand the need for outdated media like printed directories.”

To make better use of the millions of unwanted phonebooks in the UK school children are taking part in a competition to make papier mache sculptures and models out of the pages from unwanted phonebooks. The competition will be judged by celebrity green campaigner Dick Strawbridge and the winner will win a prize for their school.

The campaign petition on the Downing St website already has over 6,500 signatures making it the most supported environmental campaign on the petition website.

Support the campaign and sign the petition!

“A petition to scrap phonebooks is the best-supported environmental campaign on the Downing Street website only three weeks after its launch.”

“Over 5,500 people have already signed the petition, which is more than for a petition campaigning against a third runway at Heathrow.”

Read the article on the Webuser website