Does anyone use the White Pages to look up phone numbers anymore? I know some people use them as doorstops and booster seats. But in this Internet age, they’re becoming a huge waste. Roughly 147 million White Pages are sent to phone customers in the U.S. every year – chewing up 5 million trees.
Now environmentalists and some California lawmakers are trying to put an end to the residential listings. State Senator Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, has written legislation that would limit distributing the White Pages to people who specifically ask for it. Yee says disposing and recycling 165,000 tons of phone books costs state taxpayers $17 million a year, when the same information is readily available online.
But some consumer groups fear the digital divide could become a chasm. “We can’t make public policy on the basis of the assumption that every consumers has fast broadband access and a working computer. That’s simply not the case,” said Mindy Spatt with the Utility Reform Network in San Francisco.
Many Americans still rely on the White Pages to contact government offices, local merchants, and friends, Spatt said. Critics also point out calling 411 costs nearly $2 per call. They argue instead of taking the directory away, better to encourage people to cancel their delivery with a call to their phone book provider. Such “opt-out” programs have worked well in states like Alaska and New York.
But environmentalists say requiring people to request directories would ensure fewer are printed, pointing to pilot programs in Miami, Atlanta, and Austin where “opt-in” rates are as low as 1 percent. With government and telecoms looking to save money, this plan is likely to get a lot of support.
Some people are now wondering if the Yellow Pages could be next, but that’s a whole different story. Paid for by the businesses inside, the Yellow Pages generate $14 billion in ad revenue every year, which means they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.