An 8-1 Seattle City Council vote in October will put into place an ordinance that creates a telephone directory delivery opt-out registry, according to a news release from the Seattle City Council.
The ordinance requires directory publishers to pay the costs of operating the registry (accessible on the Web, by phone and by mail) and also requires directory publishers to begin paying for the recycling of unwanted discarded directories beginning in 2011. The legislation also sets out penalties for directory publishers who continue to deliver books when requested not to.
“Seattleites are constantly looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment, and the Council has heard from an overwhelming number of people who don’t want phone books,” says council member Mike O’Brien.
A similar system also has been put into place in Minnesota, though that system has been set up cooperatively with the Berkeley Heights, N.J.-based Yellow Pages Association (YPA).
YPA President Neg Norton remarked to a columnist at the Minnesota business publication Finance & Commerce, “We certainly don’t want to deliver Yellow Pages to people who don’t want them.” Norton also indicated that about 30 percent fewer Yellow Pages directories are distributed in 2010 compared to five years earlier.
In Seattle, the city’s government estimates that nearly 2 million phone books are dropped off in Seattle every year. The city’s department of Public Utilities also puts a price tag of $350,000 to recycle the books, using a figure of $148 per ton.
Through the ordinance passed in October, the city has established a fee of 14 cents per book, likely declining to 7 cents per book after five years, to pay for the registry.
“This ordinance has national significance as the first phone book opt-out requirement in the country,” says Scott Cassel, executive director of the Product Stewardship Institute (PSI), based in Boston. “PSI is using Seattle’s legislation, along with other legislative examples from around the country, to create a model bill for states and municipalities that are ready to follow Seattle’s lead.”
The registry is expected to be ready for use no later than July 1, 2011, according to the news release from the Seattle City Council.
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