Are you sick of paper based phone books? When was the last time you actually used a phone book?
You know what? I honestly cannot remember the last time I picked one up other than to throw it in the recycling bin.
Finally, there is a way to save copious amounts of paper each year.
For those of you who reside in Australia, there is now once single place that you can cancel your yearly delivery of these paper bricks. All you have to do is visit Directory Select at this address; https://www.directoryselect.com.au/action/home and choose “Cancel Books”. There are about 5 clicks, a postcode, and your address, and you are done. It is that easy.
You can use this tool to cancel your phone books anywhere in Australia. As you can see below, here is one I did today. No more paper phone books for three years!
And if you do have some paper phone directories laying around the home, you can just pop them into your curbside recycling bin.
However, if you still need to keep your phone book for whatever reason, you can be comfortable in the knowledge that the paper is FSC certified (but doesn’t state the paper source).
Sensis, a division of our largest telco Telstra, took the eco-friendly route in 2010. They have this to say about their phone directories;
“In February 2010, we announced that our Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories have been certified carbon neutral through the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Friendly™ program, which has since transitioned to the National Carbon Offset Standard. We will achieve this by offsetting the carbon emissions of the directories through accredited providers and projects in Australia. The carbon neutrality accounts for the full life cycle of the print and online directories, including production, use, disposal and distribution, from 1 February 2010.” – source: https://www.directoryselect.com.au/action/info/what-is-directory-select#directory-env
I will for sure! Thanks for the info, as I never knew cancelling the delivery was an option. Like you every year they turn up and every year I chuck them in the recycling as I never use them.
We cancelled our phone book at our old place after receiving it for a couple of years. We received it again after having cancelled it.
We moved house in the middle of this year and just the other day our new phone book arrived. We didn’t give any thought to cancelling it. As you say, when was the last time you picked it up – likewise, when was the last time you gave it any thought?
Such a waste.
I cancelled ours along with putting our phone number on the Do Not Call register. As wonderful as ours turned out to be for packing our glass valuables I figure I can do without the YP and WP. The app on my phone is far faster, more convenient and in itself it’s far more environmentally friendly (although no illusions about the eco values of my actual phone).
Thanks Gavin. I’ve just cancelled phone books and I’m passing this information on to my friends and neighbours.
Good work.
Gavin – here in USA I canceled at optout@yellowpagesoptout.com. On this site you can add your business as well as personal address. If this works, I will have opted out of about 12 copies. Thank you thank you very much!!
just did this…thank Gavin for the heads up. Never knew you could.
I’ve done it also. Thanks Gav. Didnt know it was an option.
I must be the only one who does use the phone book from time to time. I don’t have a modern phone with apps, I might not have the computer switched on when I want a number, and I might want to search for a new tradesperson in my area. So I pick up the phone book.
Cool, just did it. Thanks, I didn’t know it was an option.
Thanks Gavin, I’ve been meaning to find out how to do this for ages! Signed up last night.
I still use my phone books most days because the app equivalent doesn’t allow for scanning of uncertain spellings, and is not as good for getting trade and professional services numbers.
In addition, old phone books are great for genealogy. People pay a lot for old ones.