Recycling Yellow Pages

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

We and the other thousands of homes in West Oxfordshire have just had the latest copy of the yellow pages delivered. Our copy of the last one is still in the plastic cover. Does anybody know if you can opt out of receiving the yellow pages.

Widening the discussion, the phone books I believe are still difficult to recycle. In this era of the tinternet, do we still need huge phone books that get delivered to every household. I can’t remember the last time I used one. I know some people will use them, which is fine. But don’t you think it would be possible for BT and Thompson and any other phone book companies to only deliver them to people who want them.
How much energy and paper is wasted on the books that just stay unopened?
Are they already made from recycled paper is that why they are so hard to dispose of, or is it just the thickness of them.

BWD

[galanthus]

We received new yellow pages a few months ago and just recently a new phone book, as with you, last year's stayed in the plastic wrapper for months. We recycled them eventually but also wondered how we can stop receiving them in the future. Maybe bt should develop a 'phone book delivery only if requested'. Much more cost efficient and energy efficient.

[Jez]

That sounds like the way i'd like to go. We don't as yet have a bin collection that's until Sept. Our Community has to deposit it's waste at a near by Skip! Luckily theres some unknown person who collects Yellow Pages and takes them of our hands???

[thunder]

It's still a lot easier to pick up the phone book/yellow pages than it is to go upstairs, switch on the PC, log in, log in to the right website, fathom out the right boxes to fill in etc etc etc

henrya

[ron1863]

My brother's a postman and he used to hate when new phone books came out as it meant extra work for him, he said that the majority of folk don't want them as they use their mobile phones and computers to store numbers.
Our recycle area is overloaded the week after the new books arrive.

[jnb]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Our recycle area is overloaded the week after the new books arrive.

I've noticed that as well but it's the previous year's phone books which overflow the recycle bins not the new ones, which suggests that people do still want them.

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Originally Posted by jnb

I've noticed that as well but it's the previous year's phone books which overflow the recycle bins not the new ones, which suggests that people do still want them.

I have put last years out for recycling and kept this years, in its plastic wrapper, until I get the next one. I don't expect many people throw the new one away as soon as they get it. But that doesn't mean they want it or will use it.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by thunder

It's still a lot easier to pick up the phone book/yellow pages than it is to go upstairs, switch on the PC, log in, log in to the right website, fathom out the right boxes to fill in etc etc etc

henrya

even easier to dial 118247

other numbers are available but that's the only one connected to the yellow pages

[APC]

Come someone tell me why they need a plastic wrapper?

I'd never really thought about the pain in the backside that is the Yellow Pages (and the Thompson Directory and the BT Telephone Book (which happens to have all the stuff in YP and TD)).

I wonder how high you could stack them all each year?

[Paul mabbott]

I certainly don't see why we need a BT, a Virgin-Telewest and a Thompsons nor why we need them every year .... no problem here in recycling them but what a waste!

On the other points, I've never really got the hang of yell on the internet - it seems to sort entries in a biased manner, much easier to look down a page in a book.... but then, as someone else pointed out, you've got most of the ones you use regularly on your 'phone or personal address book ...

I imagine that we only use our directories half a dozen times each year ... so the computer search would be better. Indeed, I was looking up B&Q the other week and couldn't find it in the directories but easy on-line ...

So all a bit annoying, but not as bad as the numerous free papers/magazines which are basically all adverts coming round every week or month - straight into the recycling ...

QUOTE=Billy Wobble Dagger;149841]We and the other thousands of homes in West Oxfordshire have just had the latest copy of the yellow pages delivered. Our copy of the last one is still in the plastic cover. Does anybody know if you can opt out of receiving the yellow pages.

Widening the discussion, the phone books I believe are still difficult to recycle. In this era of the tinternet, do we still need huge phone books that get delivered to every household. I can’t remember the last time I used one. I know some people will use them, which is fine. But don’t you think it would be possible for BT and Thompson and any other phone book companies to only deliver them to people who want them.
How much energy and paper is wasted on the books that just stay unopened?
Are they already made from recycled paper is that why they are so hard to dispose of, or is it just the thickness of them.

BWD[/quote]

[tufftie]

It might be something to do with what they're coated with (the inside pages) - have you tried lighting a fire with one rolled up as a taper..?

[Wild-Woman]

I can remember...years ago... a guy who could tear the yellow pages in half with his bare hands. AND not page by page!

[agrumpycow]

This thread's just reminded me that the phone book we got delivered a few months ago is still in the plastic sleeve.............and still outside on the front step behind the plant pot where the postman left it

[Blackbrook Eye]

Originally Posted by agrumpycow

This thread's just reminded me that the phone book we got delivered a few months ago is still in the plastic sleeve.............and still outside on the front step behind the plant pot where the postman left it

Snap, so is mine. Possibly the reason it is delivered to all properties is the fact that it is nothing more or less than a book of adverts and advertising space is sold on the basis of how many people will potentially read it, if it was on a opt in basis the number of readers would drop dramatically and therefore the demand for advertising space would be reduced, leading to lower income for the publishers. Profitability 1 - Environment 0, again

[Dan Salter]

[quote=APC;208542]Come someone tell me why they need a plastic wrapper?

QUOTE]

Appologies if this has been answered....the answer is that the yellow pages does not fit through a letter box and is left on the doorstep....usually all day...and as this is the Uk it gets wet...hence the plastic!

But i agree...we have probably 4 or 5 of them piled up and they never get used, waste of paper. ....infact i find them far too confusing these days...even the straight ahead local phone book has gone all weird...the net is so much easier.

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Originally Posted by APC

I wonder how high you could stack them all each year?

Maths isn't my strong point, but here goes. There are about 25million homes in the UK. The Oxfordshire yellow pages is about 5cm thick, so i'm using that as an average. Lots of maths later you get 1250km which is about 777miles which is Lands end to somewhere between Inverness and John o groats. And thats not including copies sent to companies and the ordinary telephone directories or Thompson etc. That's a lot of paper and energy needed to produce and to dispose of them. DO you think we should have a vote on the need for paper telephone directories?

BWD

[APC]

Thanks for the reason for the plastic wrapper, makes sense I suppose.

777 miles of yellow pages! Savage! Now do the maths to work out how long the individual pages work out at

I am considering trying to do an online petition on the downing street site. Will get on it tomorrow I think. Doubt it will do anything at all but perhaps it might raise a bit of awareness. Maybe more people use the book regularly and think its more valuable than we think?

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Originally Posted by APC

777 miles of yellow pages! Savage! Now do the maths to work out how long the individual pages work out at

I am considering trying to do an online petition on the downing street site. Will get on it tomorrow I think. Doubt it will do anything at all but perhaps it might raise a bit of awareness. Maybe more people use the book regularly and think its more valuable than we think?

Good luck with the petition. As for the distance of the individual pages, in summary a very long way and back again

BWD

[thunder]

Originally Posted by APC

Maybe more people use the book regularly and think its more valuable than we think?

I am sure there are - me for one! I find the YP vastly more useful than the internet for local shopping/services. Hope they don't succumb to the tyranny of the internet!

henrya

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by APC

Come someone tell me why they need a plastic wrapper?

I'd never really thought about the pain in the backside that is the Yellow Pages (and the Thompson Directory and the BT Telephone Book (which happens to have all the stuff in YP and TD)).

I wonder how high you could stack them all each year?

They use a plastic wrapper because they leave them on the doorstep if nobody is in the house.

[nightshade]

I have heard of people collecting them to burn on log burning stoves,
to supplement tree-wood.

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

I can remember...years ago... a guy who could tear the yellow pages in half with his bare hands. AND not page by page!

God! my partner can rip me to shreds with just a look

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by ron1863

God! my partner can rip me to shreds with just a look

It's a technique us females are born with.

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by ron1863

They use a plastic wrapper because they leave them on the doorstep if nobody is in the house.

This is quite effective. In the year of the big Foot & Mouth, we did not visit our very small isolated house for the full year, yet when we did get there, the postman had walked over 2 fields and climbed over the locked gate to leave a copy of Yellow pages in the yard (no post box). Only the outer 10mm all round was ruined.