white pages california san bernardino county

Denise Ducheny, D-Chula Vista, voted no, saying the bill didn’t seem well thought out. “They aren’t going to keep all of them and many are directly recycled or worse, thrown away,” she said. Kehoe said in a statement that she uses phone books, but supported the bill because most households get several. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, was the only local representative to support it. The bill died in the state Senate in June by a vote of 18-12. (That may be so, but there is still no one-stop website or phone number to halt all phone book delivery.) The phone book industry opposed the bill, arguing that it’s made significant progress in allowing residents to opt-out of phone book delivery. It would have also required phone books to include opt-out information on their covers. Legislators in Sacramento this year pushed a bill that would forbid delivery of phone books to customers who opt out of receiving them. A group called Ban the Phone Book has gotten media attention (it was organized by an online directory that could benefit if people have fewer phonebooks). Is anyone trying to stop phone book distribution? The yellow pages industry, which is still dominated by its print products, made an estimated $15.38 billion - yes, billion - in 2009, a decline of 7.5 percent from the previous year. And the phone book itself is a huge business. Particularly, its advocates say, in rural areas lacking internet service. (Of course, not everyone recycles their phone books.)ĭoes anybody even use the phone book anymore? That would account for about four percent of the 72,166 tons of recyclables that the city expects to collect through curbside recycling this year. 004 and you get 3,216 tons of phone books distributed in the city each year. The city of San Diego makes up approximately 0.4 percent - a bit less than half of one percent - of the country’s 307 million people. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the United States creates 804,000 tons worth of phone books each year. (AT&T alone says it distributes 5.3 million phone books a year in San Diego County.) This is a tough one to figure out since a variety of companies distribute phone books of various types and sizes. How much do all those distributed phone books weigh? Taxpayers cover the difference: $4.5 million a year. Revenue from the commodities that are recycled (all that junk is worth something) doesn’t cover the cost of collecting them. However, the city does lose money on its curbside recycling program. No one seems to know exactly how much, since San Diego city officials couldn’t break out the specific cost of recycling phone books. Yes, or you can take them to a city recycling center.ĭoesn’t it cost the city to recycle all these phone books? The Yellow Pages Association has a webpage devoted to opting-out from phone book distribution, but you still need to contact each company individually.Ĭan you just throw used phone books into those blue recycling bins? How do I get these companies to stop delivering phone books?

That means you get one even if your only phone isn’t connected to the wall, or if you have no phone at all.Īnd, of course, a variety of non-phone companies distribute their own varieties of yellow pages. “We deliver to homes and businesses within the area regardless of who the provider is,” Logan said. The AT&T yellow pages come along for the ride.

In fact, California state law requires that local phone companies distribute the white pages to their customers. “We don’t have any restrictions that we’re aware of in the San Diego area,” says AT&T Advertising Solutions spokesman Bruce Logan. How come phone books on my porch aren’t litter? Here are some frequently asked questions about phone books along with actual answers. Why do phone book companies get to distribute their products that way? And is any lawmaker willing to speed up what Slate calls the “most absurdly drawn-out death throes of any advertising medium ever known”? AT&T is delivering them throughout San Diego through next week. Brews & News: Voice of San Diego Live PodcastsĬall it a sound of summer, the noise a bundled pile of phone books makes as it lands on your doorstep.

Can You Stop the Phone Book? | Voice of San Diego Close

White pages california san bernardino county