02 July 2008

Stop the Yellow Pages Madness

Best idea ever. Stop unsolicited phone book delivery to your home or business with a nifty website called Yellow Pages Goes Green. I'm always infuriated by phone books, here in Portland at least three different companies print yellow and white pages and drop them on your doorstep uninvited. Living in a 4-plex that shares a front porch, its especially overwhelming when they all appear. No one in the building even wants one, we all have the internets and have no need for the ol' yellow pages. They all just go straight to the recycling bin, but a whole lot of energy was wasted to force five pounds of paper upon us that we don't need or want.
Now I'm patiently waiting until November when they usually start appearing to see if it works. Updates to come.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

FYI, last year 13.4 US consumers referenced the print YP 13.4 billion times, so your usage (or lack thereof) may not reflect other's. The site you named can't stop delivery for most publishers, regardless of their claims. That can only be done by the individual. Try calling the number in the directory you receive to cancel. Full disclosure, I work for the Yellow Pages Association and the facts on the evironmental impact of our products can be found at www.ypassociation.org

John D said...

In my book, (pun intended)things that end up on my front porch without my consent are merely spam, just like the forty messages I wade through in my inbox everyday. That free version of the Oregonian full of advertising and short of news, Spam! Folks with clipboards ringing my bell asking for whatever it is they want, Spammers! How long will it take for unsolicited advertising to piss off enough people to no longer be a moneymaker?
In ten to twenty years, a good chunk of these 13.4 (million?, billion) consumers who have yet to adopt the internets as their primary information source, are going to die. Looks like its time for the yellow pages publishers to get into the text message spam business, the next generation of unsolicited annoyance.

Anonymous said...

John - Thank you posting and messaging our organization: www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org We are receiving thousands of opt out request every month.

Shobbs stated that we can't stop delivery from MOST PUBLISHERS. We contact every publishers every month and provide them the complete list of opt out request. Some publishers accept it and some don't. The push back we have received from one of the publishers is that they do not have proof that the opt out request did not come from a disgruntled ex-spouse that is trying to stop the person from getting a telephone book! This is the actual response! How much more sinister can you be to stop the delivery of an unwanted and unsolicited book being thrown on your front door. Thank God Steve Martin was not divorced in the movie The Jerk. Our organization is allowing people to opt out from getting a book. If you want one, great, but if you don’t we are the only organization that allows you to contact the publishers in a easy and concise format.

Anonymous said...

If sushi, tattoos, and snowboarding are some of the fastest growing headings in the print books, I doubt those listings are being used by people are "going to die" anytime soon.

That sounds a bit techno-snobbish isn't it??