It's becoming a trend that's not going away, and this is a good thing...
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed legislation that prohibits Yellow Pages from being delivered to residents and businesses who don't specifically request them. They have created a three-year pilot program, starting May 1, 2012, after which Yellow Pages can only deliver their books to customers who accept them in person or give approval by phone or mail.
San Francisco residents can also visit a new nationwide web site at YellowPagesOptOut.com where they can choose which local business directories they want to receive or not receive.
According to the Board of Supervisors President, David Chiu, nearly 1.6 million copies of the Yellow Pages are delivered in San Francisco every year, and they create almost 7 million pounds of waste to be collected and recycled. The San Francisco Department of the Environment reports it costs $750,000 a year to dispose of Yellow Page books, of which many have not even been opened.
Seattle and Baltimore have also jumped on the Yellow Pages Opt-out bandwagon, and it's hopefully just the beginning. It has to help the environment if people choose to opt-out of even a fraction of the 540,000,000 directories printed every year.
Wondering how this will affect Yellow Pages advertisers, delivery persons, recyclers, etc.?
Here's a "spoof" on the whole Yellow Pages opt-out controversy.
Yellow Pages has answered the "green" call by setting up a website Yellow Pages Goes Green to help consumers find their business information online and promote helping the environment.
We advertise in the Yellow Pages, and it still works - sometimes. Hopefully it still will.... If you own a business, you might want to take online advertising and direct mail more seriously...
Published in:
sfexaminer.com
earth911.com