Victory for environmentalists as Europe moves towards an opt-in system for phone books?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Belgian Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne has announced on Twitter that Belgium would adopt an opt-in system for residential telephone directories.
From 2011, white-pages directories will not be delivered in Belgium unless a customer requests one and let's hope the same will be true for the business pages as well.
The development signals a decisive shift away from mass-produced paper directories, which are often unused, putting pressure on land-fill sites, expending severe carbon emissions and wasting water and oil during production and recycling.
The white pages opt-in system in Belgium could save 3,000 tonnes of paper. The UK could spare a staggering 36,900 tonnes of paper and 32,538 metric tonnes of carbon emissions with a centralized opt-in service. This figure is based on the delivery of three different types of directory to UK households, and a predicted 41% reduced circulation - an independent poll of 1000 UK residents found that 41% don’t use phone books for directory inquiry information anymore.
Belgium’s position will heap pressure on Ofcom and other paper directory providers to move with the times. Ofcom regulations currently state that all public telephone providers must supply customers with a printed directory on request. In practice only BT fulfills this obligation, sending a white pages directory to all householders in the UK.
The term says “on request”, does it not. So why do we still get bombarded with the books, and also the Yellow Pages?
I have not used a paper directory for I do not know how long. If I cannot find the number online it will not be in the directories either as it will be unlisted.
In March 2008 Ofcom proposed removing the obligation to send a white pages directory on request. Two years on, no action has been taken.192.com say the environmental stakes are too high for any further delay.
192.com have been running a ‘Say No To Phone Books’ campaign and have attracted over 12,000 signatures to their Downing Street ePetition, which calls for the government to set up an opt-in system for phone books. The petition has recorded the fifth largest response ever for an environmental petition on the site.
Dominic Blackburn, Product Director at 192.com comments, “Britain wants to be a leading low carbon economy, and a nation-wide opt-in system would show we’re taking the lead in tackling waste. Belgium’s example should prompt other European states to follow suit, and Britain should be at the forefront of that. A Europe-wide opt-in system would be a massive plus for the environment and complement the EU directive to reduce landfill.
“Given the ongoing environmental burden of unused directories and mass public support for an opt-in system, we’re calling on Ofcom to take things a step further and say that BT should only deliver white pages directories on request and set up an opt-in system just like Belgium.”
It is more than obvious, I should think, that 192.com's campaign against the phone books, the paper ones, is resultant of commercial interests rather than the calimed environmental concerns and many of their statements ring to my ears like greenwash too.
However, as far as I am concerned, I do not use a phone book, though I still get them delivered to my address and all those books do is clutter up the shelves. The same is true with the Thompson's Local Directory that is also delivered.
192.com claims to be the UK’s most awarded online directory, helping find people, businesses and places for millions of users every month. On 192.com, users can search over 700 million records including free directory enquiries, edited electoral roll information, local business listings, interactive mapping, aerial photography and property reports.
What they don't say is that a number of those searched are not FREE but have to be paid for. If i want to search the electoral roll I go to the Library where it is free and the rest of the stuff is also found elsewhere online for free.
On the other hand the information that the annual production of phone books in Britain alone uses around 90,000 tons of paper and enough electricity to power 59,000 homes for a year.
Phone books also, so the source at 192.com, consume 680,000 barrels of oil, the annual consumption of 67,000 people, and two billion litres of water, enough to fill 800 Olympic swimming pools. From production to recycling, these phone books use 79,360 metric-tonnes of carbon emission.
And that is rather a staggering bit of waste of energy and resources. Maybe CDs with the directories would be an idea for BT to release, even as an ISO to be downloaded from the Web, maybe.
© 2010
