A couple weeks ago I came home and saw a phone book sitting in front of my front door. This has happened many times in the past. As usual, I put it right in the recycling bin, slowly shaking my head as I pondered why they keep sending phone books out to people when most people never even open them. It’s a big waste of paper and precious ink, not to mention the gas it takes to deliver phone books nationwide each year. So I did a lil’ research, and found out how to stop phone book delivery once and for all…
Call 1-(877)-243-8339
I just called this number to test it out, and within about 4 minutes I had opted out of getting phone books. The person on the phone was friendly and helpful, although a bit confused at first (she thought I wanted to get MORE phone books delivered to my house). So call that number, and in less than 4 minutes, you won’t have to worry about getting any more phone books. Huzzah.
P.S. To see where to recycle your old phone books, go HERE and optically scan the provided information.
P.P.S. Here’s a funny prank done by some hoodlums with phone books.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Hey! I’m not a hoodlum!
February 6th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Maybe a no-goodnik, or a trickster then.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Joe,
Interesting post! This is the great thing about just having a cell phone, as I don’t even get any phone books!
April 5th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
You can opt out electronically at http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. Just fill in the sign up form and http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org will contact the publishers to stop the madness. This is a free service for the consumers. http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to sign up.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I collect the phone books of my friends family and neighbors when they are done with them. I shred and compost them for my garden and I also use them along with my chimney started for getting charcoal going. You can do this with newspapers and most paper products. For those interested in composting office paper and junk mail I recommend researching vermicomposting.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:08 am
I used my MyJunkTree account to stop all the phone books. It was quick and easy and all I had to do was click a button. In a few days I received an email confirming my address was off of the delivery list, pretty easy. I have my account to Remove Junk Mail and the phone books was an added bonus. Between the phone books and catalogs I could have built a fort. It is nice to be done with this.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I’ve called the number, I’ve written letters. I’m not sure that the people who are delivering our telephone books care who gets one. They even deliver to homes with no telehone!
August 26th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and it seems the word is getting out. Thanks for the support.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 2000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Thanks for the post.
You can also sign do not mail petition (like Do Not Call National Petition)
I did some search online and this is the best resource so far available online (correct me if I am wrong). I have done this 5 months ago and my mailbox is literally empty ( I have paperless billing and also opted out from various mail lists) I check my mail twice a month now. It is beautiful.
I even took the letter from samples provided and wrote it to a local Chinese restaurant that keeps putting fliers in my door. They stopped too in the whole subdivision.
http://awakening.weebly.com/stop-junk-mail.html
I even opted out from the yellow book. What do I need it for, since the internet is right here.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Maxym, thanks for that link. That page really does have great tips for keeping junk mail away, also, I heartily endorse Weebly.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
If you want to do more than just Stop Junk Mail that comes to your home, this site might also be of interest to you. Stopping Free Papers. It is a free service and they help you stop the delivery of all the free papers that are thrown in your driveway. The site is sponsored by MyJunkTree and it is totally free!
December 1st, 2008 at 6:43 am
Some interesting sites for those who'd like to see us move to an opt-in system for phone books. Been doing some research (will be updating on my site <http://albertideation.com>
http://www.stopthephonebooks.com/
http://www.productstewardship.us/displaycommon.cf...- current legislation
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org./movement.htm...- state of the movement
March 24th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Check out Eco Yellow Pages for additional tips and info on stopping the unsolicited delivery of phone books. Our belief is that printed phone books provide a valuable service for those who want them, but are nothing but a waste for those of us who do all our local business look-ups online. Thanks for bringing attention to this issue!
June 19th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Telephone Books are not all bad, my husband got laid off 2 months ago and that's how we are feeding our family.
June 20th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Can you share some of your telephone book recipes?
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 am
Verizon/idearc – regular directory + little useless business-only book. Two copies of each = 4 books total.
Yellowbook – Business-only book. Useless.
CommunityPhoneBook – little local book.
LocalTel – little local book. Duplicate effort of the previous local book.
This is what I get here every year! I wouldn't mind ONE regular Verizon/idearc book every couple of years. But even they screwed it up with all those books every year!
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:42 am
You should start building a book fort. Sometimes there's a number on the phone book you can call, then you can just ask them to stop sending you phone books. Check it out.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
I loved your blog. It was amazing and i really liked it.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:35 am
I really loved reading this blog. I m really glad to have read this blog. I m just happy to let you know that i appreciate all the effort put into this blog.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Another good post. Home based businesses is becoming quite a phenomenon around the USA.
January 29th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I found your blog searching bing for phones sites and came across your site.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Very good post. I’ve found your site via Yahoo and I’m really glad about the information you provide in your articles. Btw your sites layout is really broken on the Chrome browser. Would be really great if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the great work!