650,000 Tons of Paper

I came home from work this evening to see a plastic bag containing the Yellow Pages sitting on my front step. I swear that it was only a month or two ago that the Dex Directory arrived – books for both white and yellow pages. Admittedly folks that are likely to be reading a blog are more likely to have also adopted online directory resources, but really – does ANYONE use these things anymore? It went straight from the front porch to the recycle bin in the garage for next week’s pickup. In a city as green as Portland – and when all utilities, credit card companies, magazine subscriptions, book club memberships, etc. are clamoring to “save a tree, end paper billing” – why do we not at least have an option to opt out on receiving these behemoth things?

7 Comments so far

  1. Oswego (unregistered) on October 19th, 2006 @ 10:38 pm

    I absolutely still use the phone book. I have one at my desk at work and one at my desk at home, and refer to it often. I far prefer it to an on-line version.


  2. atlas (unregistered) on October 19th, 2006 @ 10:47 pm

    I do not use this archaic bundle of pulp… futhermore, if I am really at a loss I call information through my verizon cell service.

    Regarding services through the Dex, I much prefer the net and the cross-reference available when seeking out a service.


  3. Banana Lee Fishbones (unregistered) on October 19th, 2006 @ 11:15 pm

    THANK YOU!

    If anyone knows how to opt out, please let me know too-somehow I get one from Qwest and one other one too, and I don’t even have a land line!!!


  4. Betsy (unregistered) on October 20th, 2006 @ 6:50 am

    I’m actually in need of a good phone book or two.

    Why? I’ve got a stack of three phone books propping up one corner of my bed (getting the frame replaced is low on my priority list right now); and the ones there are getting old and too flexible…!


  5. Dancing Dead Tree (unregistered) on October 20th, 2006 @ 9:01 am

    I live in the couve and I can’t understand why it is that I need 6 or 8 different phone books every year. I won’t use a single one of them. Not for lack of trying though. it is just that every last one is incomplete and they all have different areas they are lacking in. I never now which one to look in first. I looked into one of the books I recieved recently and found a listing for a Uncle Miltz Pizza. Uncle Miltz!!!! didn’t that place go under about 10 years ago??? No thank you I will stick to the web.

    With the cheapness of alot of our thchnology today you would think it would be cheaper to produce a “McPhone book”. Something akin to a McDonalds happy meal electronic video game toy. A small semi rugged plasic cased device with a few navigation buttons and a small dot matrix display. But I wouldn’t want to recieve 6 of them a year either. Just one! that would make me and a lot of trees happy.


  6. Rob (unregistered) on October 21st, 2006 @ 12:20 pm

    Phone book? As in, paper? I can’t figure out how to use those damn things. Where’s the search bar? Or the keyboard, for that matter? How do I map my way to a business once I find what I’m looking for? WHAT?!? No menus in the restaurants section? Are you KIDDING me?

    No thanks.


  7. Banana Lee Fishbones (unregistered) on October 21st, 2006 @ 12:33 pm

    Dead Tree: You mean like the Hitchhiker’s Guide? (:



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