Blogs Are Stupid

Doesn't anyone believe in Dear Diary anymore? What happened to the joy of putting actual pen to paper? And why does every ordinary Jane and John think they can write well enough to burden the world with their scribblings? It’s a mystery that badly needs solving. My first entry contains my thoughts about blogging and will set your expectations. The rest will probably be stream of consciousness garbage, much like you’ll find on any other blog. Perhaps we will both come away enlightened.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Save A Tree, Use The Internet

Yesterday, I got three huge phonebooks delivered to my doorstep.

Because I live in a large Metropolitan area, I get phonebooks for about 17 different cities. It's ridiculous, particularly since I literally, NEVER use them.

I use realyellowpages.com whenever I need a number. It's quicker, easier and yields more results. Plus, I just don't have a convenient place to store 17 phonebooks.

Last year I inquired about an opt out and was told there was no way to do so.

Um, what? Really?

So I continue to get phonebooks. And I continue to throw them directly in the garbage.

Is there a phonebook recycling depot? Not that I've found.

Because we live outside the city limits, we do not get city municipal services.

We don't recycle here at home because our trash service charges extra for that and we just don't have it in our budget. I know it's a thin excuse for not being more environmentally conscious, but we live on a single income and every little penny counts.

I do try to take magazines, bottles and cans to the freestanding bins in the supermarket parking lot, but I've not seen one for phonebooks. Could they go in the magazine one? Such a dilemma.

I think this is a huge problem. If 4 million people are throwing away phonebooks each year, that's a monumental waste.

I wonder how many trees are dying to manufacture phonebooks that nobody uses. I mean....does anybody use them these days?

I suppose in the grand scheme of global environmental crises, this is a small issue. And yet, I still felt a twinge of guilt as I dumped the heavy volumes into my trash can.

Just a thing to make you go...hmmmmmmm.

14 Comments:

  • At 12:39 PM, Blogger Tania said…

    Toss the book in the magazine bin. The worst that could happen is that someone else does the throwing out.

    It really is bad that you can't opt out.

     
  • At 12:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    my hmmmm made me put on my search crown and came back with this:

    If You Can’t Recycle, Reuse

    But those whose towns won’t accept phonebooks at all and who can’t find anywhere else to drop them need not fret. Old phonebooks have many practical uses. Their pages make excellent fire starters in a wood-burning fireplace or outdoor fire pit. Balled up or shredded phonebook pages also make nice packaging filler in place of problematic polystyrene “peanuts.”

    Phonebook pages can also be shredded and used as mulch to keep weeds down in your garden. The paper is biodegradable and will eventually return back to the soil. Those with an artistic bent can use old phonebooks to make flipbook style animated drawings, as described by animator Robert Truscio on his “Drawings That Move” instructional website.

     
  • At 1:58 PM, Blogger sltbee69 said…

    My sentiments exactly. Most of the time if I try to use them, I can't find what I'm looking for anyway. I never knew until recently that they weren't recycable. It still continues to amaze me that in the computer age we live in just how much paper our society still uses.

     
  • At 3:05 PM, Blogger Amy Y said…

    I hate that you can't opt out. I literally can not remember the last time I looked in a phone book. Google is so much quicker.

    When I can, I tell the delivery person not to leave one for me (if I happen to be home and outside when they are coming ~ unlikely). But the ones I do get, get sent to recycling with the newspapers and magazines...

    I wouldn't even know where to start to try to get this issue resolved! :(

     
  • At 6:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    They are most useful for the coupons in the back!!! Yes, I do recycle mine with my magazines...

     
  • At 6:37 PM, Blogger Shelley said…

    I'm sure you could throw it in the magazine bin, it's paper, just the same. I'm glad our city doesn't charge for recycling, I've never heard of that! We have a garbage bin and a recycle bin, and the garbage goes out on Tuesdays and the recycle bin on Thursdays. And yup, my phone books go directly in there too. I can't believe you can't opt out of getting them, that seems like such a waste.

     
  • At 6:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    In our town, they are considered magazines and I recycle them as such! Hope that helps! Laurie

     
  • At 6:58 PM, Blogger Green-Eyed Momster said…

    I am throwing the two that I will not use in the recycling bin for now. If I find out that I can't recycle them I'm going to start wrapping gifts with the pages. Ha! I'll bet I'm the only one who thought about doing that!! LOL :)

     
  • At 8:45 PM, Blogger Single Working Mommy said…

    My telephone books are still sitting on my front porch. I meant to throw them in the recycle bin today, but forgot. Next week, they'll be in there.

     
  • At 10:51 PM, Blogger Sharon Matherson said…

    I was about to suggest a drive-by of sorts- ya know, surreptitiously adding your books to the recycling bin of a neighbor who does pay the fee.

    But then I found this: http://kcb.cobbcountyga.gov/recycle-phone.htm

    Hope this helps!

     
  • At 1:36 AM, Blogger Girlplustwo said…

    dude. i know. wtf.

     
  • At 11:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    In the area I live in, schools take them. I don't know what they do with them though. Margie

     
  • At 5:10 PM, Blogger Foofa said…

    I just leave them outside my apartment and someone eventually takes them away.

     
  • At 11:16 PM, Blogger Jammie J. said…

    I feel the same way you do about this. Every time I see one sitting on my doorstep, I just shake my head. I figure we'll save them for when short people come to visit us, they can use them as booster seats on our really low chairs (since we're the resident city giants -- I'm 5'11" and my husband is 6'6").

     

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