As kindle outstrips book sales, as San Francisco effectively bans the book, and Melbourne and Sydney ditch the white pages, how long do you give the phonebook?

6-18 months?

2-4 years?

Don’t care – we just want an opt-in system

A spokesperson for Yell confirmed the restructure when questioned by the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign team, but maintained the Yell Groups’ commitment to the environment.  The responsibilities of the role will now be assumed by the existing Corporate Social Responsibility Manager and the Corporate Social Responsibly Project Manager.    

The restructure came to light when a member of the public, Mark Thomas, asked Yell if he could speak to their Environment and Sustainability Manager but was told by Yell’s Customer Service team that he was no longer at the Company. Mr Thomas was keen to speak to Yell with regards to the unwanted Yellow Pages he has been returning to the Company.

Say No To Phonebooks have calculated that seventy five million phonebooks are produced in the UK each year – enough to cover Hyde Park twice. The annual production of these directories alone uses enough electricity to power 59,000 homes for a year and unleashes 79,360 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. Since 41% of households no longer use paper directories, almost half the natural resources wasted in the production and recycling of unwanted phonebooks could be saved each year.

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?