If you’re like me, coming home to find a plastic bag filled with several pounds of phone books sitting by the front door makes your blood boil. The trees cut down to supply paper, the ink and energy used to print, the fuel and exhaust to deliver, and yet another plastic bag used to contain something you didn’t request and don’t want to begin with…AAARGH!
Well, now you can stop the madness and seek out a greener alternative.
First, opt out of unsolicited phone book delivery at YellowPagesGoesGreen.com. Doing so is fast and free. And it is important. As greenbean at what gives!? points out, you’ll be doing your part to help keep almost half-a-million tons of yellow pages and the like out of landfills…per year!!
Second, start using a Sustainable Living Business Directory. If you are lucky enough to live in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Salt Lake City or Portland, you have the outstanding ReDirect Guide as the green alternative to yellow pages. The ReDirect Guide is available on line at www.redirectguide.com. If you prefer a hardcopy of the guide, you can pick one up at a participating business in your community, or at your local Green Drinks gathering. And you can do so knowing that the folks at ReDirect Guide walk the talk when it comes to all aspects of their business – from paper selection and printing to distribution and transit to relationships with employees and community.
The 3rd Annual Edition of the ReDirect Guide will be released on Earth Day, April 22. The new edition features educational articles on green living, suggestions for greening your business, sustainable living community resource information including a CSA map, farmers market listings, green events, a business directory, and more. All businesses listed in the directory are qualified for providing green products or services.
If you don’t live in one of the communities mentioned above, google sustainable living business directory or sustainable business directory. Add in the name of your city or state to determine if you have a local option. Here are some examples: Chicago Green Business Directory, GreenList Louisville and Hawaii Health Guide Green Business Directory.
So Redirect away from yellow pages and toward the ReDirect Guide or your local equivalent. It’s greener, it’s thinner and it’s opt-in.
Lara,
I have read that people trying to “opt-out” of phone books all together were told by Qwest that the Colorado PUC “requires” them to distribute phone books. I have asked Randy Fischer to confirm this and I need to follow-up with him to find out the current status.
Hi Matt,
Thanks–please let us know what you hear back from Randy Fisher as to whether Qwest is required to deliver the books. Lara