EnviroMom readers Erin and Christy have both sent me this info about opting out of unwanted phone books from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Let me share a few fun facts (well, you decide if they're fun or not):
- The Oregon DEQ estimates in 2003 there were 6.45 million sets of phone books published and distributed despite there being only 1.33 million households in the state
- Nationally only 20 percent of phone books are recycled (the rest are landfilled or burned)
- Recycling a 3 pound phone book reduces greenhouse gases by 5.9 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Preventing the publishing of that same 3 pound phone book reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than three times that amount (18.1 pounds)
The DEQ offers suggestions to opt of out phone books. I'm telling ya. Someone has got to get on this. All efforts I've made so far have done nothing to stop the flow of phone books to my front stoop. But it is time, dad-gummit! My father cracked our one set of phone books while visiting the other day -- quite possibly for the only time in 2008. We use them so rarely it took me 10 minutes to remember where the phone books might be stored.
For extra credit, read about the national effort to reduce the overpublishing of phone books by the Product Stewardship Institute's Phone Book Project.
Recent Comments