A Blizzard of Action and News on Yellow Pages Waste Reduction

San Francisco and Washington state introduced legislation last week in order to address the environmental and financial impacts that phone books are having in those communities.  The industry has responded by making efforts to improve its current, voluntary, opt-out program.  A central part of these efforts was to create a single clearing house for users who wish not to receive a phone book to go to, instead of the old website which directed users to a phone number of their local distributor after a zip code was entered.  

The new site was launched this week at YellowPagesOptOut.com, and though it was crashed for a day or so, presumably because so many people want out, it appears to be back up and online today.

Here's a round up of the current storm of phone book waste reduction news.

Washington’s Opt-Out Legislation [PDF]

San Francisco’s Opt-In Legislation and an accompanying news piece.

An article on the industry's efforts.

Scott Cassel of the Product Policy Institute, a member of the Environmental Paper Network, has written a great article that addresses the phone book issue.

And on Gizmodo.com, this blogger let's us know how he really feels, in the posting, "At Last, You Can Send the Yellow Pages to Hell"

And if you don't feel like reading, here's an ABC News video segment: