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Citizen complaint of the day: Attack of the phone books
By adamg on Sun, 12/25/2011 - 11:30am
A North End resident files a complaint:
Stacks of yellow book phone directories are lying everywhere, dozens and dozens of yellow books left on doorsteps and sidewalks, how is this not littering?
Poll: We got two different phone books yesterday - which to toss in the recycling?
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Comments
White whine, anyone?
I'm tired of hearing meaningless debates about phone books and what to do with them. It's not a major big deal. If this is the biggest thing people have to worry about they are quite well off.
Are you by chance a baby
Are you by chance a baby boomer whose generation has done enough damage to last centuries, that generation who has no regard for the egregious waste of resources (printing, vehicle transport, delivery, disposal) that these "courtesy" phone books are? Do us a favor and shut your piehole.
Cripes.
Don't kid yourself RE computers being good for environment.
Do you think building electronic equipment is done by fairies in a dewy meadow?
Do you think all the parts for your computer and smartphone aren't shipped around and then delivered as a final product?
Do you think running all the servers for the internet doesn't hurt the environment?
You're kidding yourself.
You're right, and yet...
I'm not going to defend server farms in giant, over air conditioned data centers as being a boon to the environment, but surely we're at a point where the dead tree edition of the phone book is needless duplication for the vast majority of users. Can't we finally just admit this and make receipt of the physical phone books an opt-in proposition?
That's your best defense?
That's your best defense? That the Internet uses electricity?
Cripes, you must be even older and more self-entitled than I thought. In love with a dead concept like delivering telephones books to all residences. They should be opt-in, so as to not needlessly waste resources.
There's a reason why it's called progress. We get better, more efficient at things. But God forbid we inconvenience the dinosaurs roaming amongst us.
I'm not defending or in love
I'm not defending or in love with anything in my post.
I'm all for opting-in for phone book deliveries.
But you conveniently ignored the main point of my post:
The impact of new technology on the environment.
It's not just electricity, but that's a concern as everyone becomes connected 24/7.
I'm no Luddite but also don't assume that new is necessarily progress, especially environmentally speaking.
There used to be one phone and one phone book for a whole family.
The phone would last decades and the book a year.
Now everyone in the household has a phone and probably replaces it every year or two.
Likewise with radios and TVs vs personal computing devices.
Don't get me wrong, computers are powerful tools when used constructively but a vast number are used to merely social network and entertain.
Finally, while I'm not a boomer I do know that their generation started the environmental movement.
The environmental cost of being hip
I do support the opt out idea for the duplicate phone books I receive each year that go straight to the recycling bin.
But the original poster makes an excellent point about the environmental damage caused by our constant upgrading to the latest trends in gadgets every 12 months. The electronic waste is rarely recycled, and usually makes it’s way to pollute poor communities.
Well, let's see: they're an
Well, let's see: they're an eyesore as they sit unused on porches. They're a massive waste of resources (energy, paper, fuel). And if you don't want one, it's incredibly difficult to stop getting them. I've used their opt-out multiple times, and it still shows up on my porch like clockwork.
Oh, and it's fraudulent: the reason it's not "opt-in" is because that way the publisher gets to tell the businesses they sell advertising to that they reach far more people than they actually do, so there's millions of wasted dollars as well. Newspapers got dragged into court for doing exactly that.
Still think it's minor?
Yes.
Oh, the horror of unwanted phonebooks piling up on front porches.
in a few years people might not even be able to open their doors.
David Macaulay on the subject
http://www.amazon.com/Motel-Mysteries-David-Macaul...
That's me
Sweet, that was my complaint! Glad someone noticed.
Fun uses:
-Make art with them. so much paper for paper mache and whatnot!
-Show off how jacked you are by ripping them in half.
-Dog toys.
-Confetti for new years!
They went from my stairs to
They went from my stairs to my recycle bin. Never made it inside the house.
A phone book can be a useful resource.
A phone book can be a useful resource. Using a phone book more effectively does require a little study of the organization of the materials in the book. A phone book can be more efficient for many types of searches.
Why in God's name should I
Why in God's name should I study to use something that I don't want and provides less information than other easily accessible methods?
A related practice
There is a related practice that I wish could be made optional. I'm not sure about other neighborhoods, but each Thursday in my East Boston neighborhood the mailman delivers a large bundle of newsprint advertisements for supermarkets, furniture stores and other businesses. While I am sure some people find these useful, I do not. In fact most are all of them are for supermarkets in Chelsea, Revere, etc that I am not even familiar with. This is an automatic practice by the post office and I am not sure there is way for individual residents to stop it. I don't know that the mailman could even keep track of who wants them and who doesn't. They are addressed to "resident" and are simply blanketed throughout the neighborhood. I know this is a minor complaint, but it is a pain to continually get and dispose of/recycle this large packet of unwanted flyers.
These are called 'Globe Direct'
and are somehow associated with the Boston Globe. At least in my Somerville neighborhood, the grocery flyers are all for supermarkets in my immediate area -- Shaw's, Stop & Shop, Market Basket, and Johnnie's Foodmaster. Very occasionaly, it also includes a circular from one of the chain drugstores (Walgreens, Rite AId, or CVS)
savings. bargains.
How about saving a few dollars on laundry detergent that was illustrated in a Market Basket flyer enclosed with the bundle of flyers? Then the following week getting getting a bargain on blackberries.
Not automatic practice by the PO
The direct mailer pays postage to deliver mail to all residents in a certain area.
Yuo can't opt out of it with the PO b/c they're being paid to deliver that mail.
With online billing and bill
With online billing and bill payments rapidly becoming the norm, and personal letter-writing having died long ago, it'll probably be less than ten years before the content of snailmail is 100% spam, or close enough to it for us to be able to ignore our snailmailboxes except to empty them into the recycle bin when they get full.
I still appreciate getting
I still appreciate getting birthday cards and Christmas cards in the mail. It's much more personal than a receiving electronic mail.
Pile of unloved phone books in the South End
Photo and complaint.