Good Things #27

The Oregon Environmental Council posted something that I had to, of course, share:

Telephone books add tons of waste to landfills (660,000 tons per year according to the Product Stewardship Institute), and they are not easily recycled. Even in places where it’s possible to recycle an unused phone book, the best solution is to not print the phone book in the first place. The EPA says that not publishing a phone book reduces greenhouse gases by about three times as much as recycling.

Many people still need and want printed phone books[1], but for those of us who don’t, we should be able to opt out of receiving them. That’s the thrust of a bill in Salem—Senate Bill 525—which would move Oregon to an opt-in system for phonebooks. You would choose whether you want the phone book or not.

If you want to reduce clutter, protect the environment, and save your local government money, sign this petition to demonstrate that there’s popular support for this bill.