Phonebook Delivery: Opt-Out, Opt-In, or Status Quo
We’ve been peripherally aware of an ongoing conversation coming out of Seattle via the Sightline Daily regarding phonebook delivery, and there’s a chance the conversation may start up in Tacoma in the not-too-distant future.
Last month Tacoma’s Environment and Public Works Committee recently heard a presentation on the topic of phone book opt-in and opt-out programs in other cities. Both Seattle and San Francisco have tried offered citizens ways to say “no thanks” to phone books, and both have faced lawsuits from the Local Search Association based on their programs. Both cities’ suits are still working their way through the legal system. Tacoma will be holding off on making a move in this department until the suits are resolved, but if they’re resolved in favor of the cities’ right to offer citizens a chance to decline delivery, we could see a phone book optional policy here too.
Opt-out vs opt-in programs
Opt-out programs put the onus on citizens to decline to receive phone books. The City of Seattle has an opt-out program in which phone book publishers are required to obtain a license and pay a disposal fee based on the number of books distributed. The fee funds the online opt-out program. They’ve had about a 20% opt-out rate, and saved 375 tons of paper since May 2011.
Opt in programs only deliver phone books to people who register to receive them. San Francisco implemented an opt-in program. These programs tend, for obvious reasons, to have a higher rate of paper savings.
Do you use your phone book? What do you think of the idea of switching to an opt-in or opt-out system?
Filed under: green-tacoma
5 comments
M MFP June 20, 2012
Opt in, please. I’d happily support a tax (with expiration date) that would go to job re-training/placement assistance to employees who would be displaced, if it means I never have to see one of those damned things on my doorstep ever again. They go straight into the recycling bin.
M Matthias June 20, 2012
I don’t use a phone book. It just goes through the front door and out the back in the recycling bin. Either program would be fine for me.
T talus June 20, 2012
Phonebooks deserve a special place in hell.
F fredo June 21, 2012
I keep a phone book. sometimes someone wants a phone number and….no….they aren’t going to use my personal computer. I know lots of elderly folks who need phone books, too. If you don’t have the internet where else are you going to find business listings?
T talus June 21, 2012
That’s why opt out is a good idea. Snarkiness aside, people who want phonebooks should be able to get them. But those of us who don’t want them shouldn’t have to be placing them directly into the recycling bin, which is what I do.