Progressive Wednesday

Dear Yellow Pages: Please Cease and Desist

Here at Progressive Wednesday, we’re pretty proud of the fact that we got mentioned back in the day online by Tonic’s Precycle (formerly Green Dimes), so we bring you this information in the spirit of that website (a site, by the by, that we’ll highlight a little ways down the binary road).

Here’s the question for the day: When, in the name of all that is holy and sacred, did you last use a phone book? That’s what we thought. I can’t honestly answer this question, because the only thing I’ve used a phone book for in the past, oh, I don’t know, ten years or so, was, well, nothing actually. (Come to think of it, the closest I’ve even come to one in the last ten years was when my girlfriend, in the moment she became my ex-girlfriend, threw one at my head. And this was a city phone book, so, it was sort of an assault-with-a-deadly-weapon situation.)

I know, I know – I don’t mean to alienate anyone out there. There’s nothing wrong with using a phone book. It’s just that with smart-phones, this thing called the Internet (Pray tell, Matt, what’s that?), and free 411 calling services, I haven’t had a need.  There’s a good chance you haven’t either. What to do….? What to do….?

Turns out, according to a piece in the Utne Reader, you can unsubscribe from getting those colossal wastes of trees, energy (fossil and human), and money. It’s pretty simple. What’s confusing is why we’ve been a little left in the dark about this. The Yellow Pages Association is a not-for-profit (okay, that’s cool), but at the same time, according to its website, it is “the largest trade organization of a print and digital media industry valued at more than $31 billion worldwide.” That means it is founded and funded by businesses. A little confused? Me, too. What about yellowpages.com? It’s owned by AT & T. I’m going to email the YPA in the coming days, and I’ll post an update once I get closer to the bottom of things.

In the mean time, to discontinue getting those books plopped on your doorstep, books that function best as doorstops, just click this sentence. You’ll type in your zip code, and then you’ll be given links to the various publications of phonebooks in your area. Go those websites, and wah-lah! A few more entries and you’ll be all set. If you’ve got some phonebooks that are collecting dust or slowly, slowly decomposing in a kitchen drawer, just click this sentence to find a recycling center near you.