Say no to phone books petition
Stop Junk Mail supports the Say No To Phone Books campaign organised by 192.com. A petition calling on the Prime Minister to establish a centralised opt-in system for phone books, which closed on 29 March 2010, was signed by 12,129 people.
An opt-in scheme would mean that phone books would no longer be delivered to every address in the UK. Instead, only people who request a phone book would receive one. In its response to the petition the Prime Minister's Office praised the industry's efforts to reduce the waste caused by the production of 75 million phone books annually but also stated that "a centralised opt-in system for receiving phonebooks is an interesting idea and would help to reduce the burden on resources and the environmental impact." As the industry is regulated by Ofcom it won't introduce an opt-in system for phone books but the response can be read as an invitation to take the campaign to the independent regulator.
Full text of the petition
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to establish a centralised opt-in system for receiving phonebooks.
75 million phonebooks are produced and delivered each year, amounting to an estimated 75,000 tonnes of annual waste, enough to cover Hyde Park twice! Add in the cost of manufacturing, delivering and recycling phone books, this equals a totally unnecessary and avoidable environmental burden. The estimated amount of resources wasted include:
- 680,000 barrels of oil (not including petrol wasted during delivery)
- 2 billion litres of water (not including water wasted in the recycling process)
- 437 million kilowatts of energy (not including the recycling process) equates to enough energy to power 112,000 three bedroom houses for a year.
From production to recycling, 75,000 tonnes of phonebooks equates to 96,000 metric tonnes of wasted carbon emissions!
We are asking for a centralised opt-in system for phonebooks, giving the UK population the choice to reduce the cost of producing unwanted and un-needed phone books.
Response from the Prime Minister's Office
UK phonebook suppliers have all moved to reduce the environmental impact of their products for example, by reducing the weight of the paper used and recycling the water used in production. Efforts have also been made to inform customers of the importance of recycling directories once they have been used.
Total UK paper consumption is about 13 million tonnes, of which 2.3 million tonnes is newspapers, 1 million tonnes magazines and periodicals and 0.55 million tonnes is direct marketing. There is significantly less paper used in the production of phonebooks than in other paper-based industries and it must also be considered that a considerable proportion of the phonebooks produced and delivered are used by the public.
A centralised opt-in system for receiving phonebooks is an interesting idea and would help to reduce the burden on resources and the environmental impact. There is no direct government regulation that would currently relate to this proposal as telephone directory information obligations and regulations fall within the remit of Ofcom, the independent telecommunications regulator and competition authority for the communication industries.
Links
- Say No To Phone Books
- Opt out of directories (Junk Buster)
- Paper Directories (Guide to Stamping Out Junk Mail)
- Directories label (Dairy of a Junk Mail Campaigner)