Telecommunications giant Verizon has unveiled a bold new green initiative in advance of Earth Day. Beginning April 21, the company will be bulk mailing all of its printed phone books directly to community recycling centers in the southern United States instead of first delivering them to consumers. Verizon released a statement earlier today.
“Today we take the lead in environmental activism. It might not be a popular move, but we always believe in doing the right thing. When we deliver printed phone and business directories to the consumer, they don’t always end up being recycled. People will often just leave them on their porch for months, use them as doorstops or booster seats, or often just throw them into the trash. We don’t want to malign the public, but this is incredibly wasteful and needs a fresh look. Today we make a change for Mother Earth. Sending the books directly to recycling centers ensures that they are properly recycled. This saves our environment and its resources for later generations. We’re very proud of this bold step.”
Despite easy internet access to public phone directories, 5% more printed phone books are printed each year in order to justify larger advertising charges. According to Gallup polling, approximately 3 people used a printed phone book last year.
Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22.
We always recycle them. They make great post-apocalypse toilet paper. 😉
There are a lot of things you can get along without when the apocalypse hits, but good substitute toilet paper is NOT one of them.
The yellow pages makes a great unique mulch!
I already do this with their books. As soon as it comes, it gets tossed into recycling.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Verizon really did this. Enough said.
Finally. I can stop aggravating my bulging discs picking those damned things up down at the bottom of the driveway.