This website is a first in the nation partnership between a non-profit conservation organization and phone book publishers. It is a clear sign of our joint commitment to consumer choice and environmental protection. To create Don’t Trash the Phone Book, Conservation Minnesota has partnered with the Yellow Pages Association and the three largest publishers of yellow page directories in Minnesota: Dex, Yellowbook, SuperMedia. The Yellow Pages Association has been working with all publishers to create their yellowpagesoptout.com website, allowing individuals to choose the number of directories they wish to receive.
Dex One is the proud leader in offering consumers a choice regarding the number of directories they want delivered with the company’s Select Your Dex program. In 2007, Dex One formed a team that ultimately created the Consumer Choice program, and they launched it in May 2008 with dedicated phone lines and an interactive website. The Select Your Dex program was an addition to the company’s long-standing recycling program, which is also supported by a website page that helps consumers locate local recycling information based on ZIP code. Today each printed directory contains information on the cover to promote recycling and Select Your Dex.
Order customization, along with strict forecasting methods, help ensure the quantities of directories printed is as close as possible to the demand for directors in any given market and had netted a reduction in directory stock paper of over 89 millions pounds utilized in 2009 as compared to 2007.
SuperMedia was one of the first publishers to sign the Yellow Pages Association and Association of Directory Publishers Joint Environmental Guidelines, which underscores their commitment to environmental responsibility. Their books are printed on paper containing up to 40 percent post-consumer recycled fiber and, when available, the remaining paper content comes from wood chips and pulp - waste products of the lumber industry. SuperMedia provides directories on CD-ROM to large business customers and uses computerized systems that use directory page space more efficiently to reduce paper consumption. They were the first company to clearly promote Consumer Choice on their directory covers.
In 2009 Yellowbook began to convert and roll-out smaller, consumer-tested and approved directories. The benefits of these smaller eco-friendly directories are numerous, reducing resources used through every part of the production and distribution cycle. Yellowbook’s eco-friendly directories decrease the amount of paper used on average by 29%, generate less waste in the production process, and are lighter, requiring less fuel - and fewer trucks - to transport and distribute, reducing carbon emissions in the process.
Yellow Pages Association and its members strongly support Consumer Choice programs, which give consumers the choice as to the number of directories they receive or none at all. To increase public awareness, many Yellow Pages publishers have placed Consumer Choice information on the front covers of the directories and the Industry-run Web site, www.yellowpagesoptout.com, a one-stop consumer Web site listing the opt-out information for publishers nationwide. In 2010, YPA will work with government agencies to get Consumer Choice program information posted on Web sites reaching hundreds of thousands of people in all 50 states.