81 Per cent of US adults willing to "Opt-In" for White Pages

WHITEPAGES, has today unveiled the results of a survey revealing that 81 per cent of consumers are willing to embrace "opt-in" programs to receive the white pages phone book to help save the environment and tax dollars.

According to WhitePages, the suvey of 1,000 adults showed that if every US household stopped receiving the white pages phone book, millions of trees and up to $17 million in taxpayer funded recycling fees would be saved every year. "Opt-in" is defined as receiving a white pages phone book only if you request one.

"The Web challenges the status quo and calls for a new way of thinking about how we can minimise our carbon footprint on this planet by using tangible and compelling online options," said Alex Algard, president & CEO at WhitePages.

"As consumers become aware of the environmental issues with printing white pages phone books, they want to help put an end to the mass printing and distribution of the 131-year-old practice."

The survey found that US adults are largely unaware of the harmful impact of white pages phone books on the environment. Only 15.9 per cent indicated they recycle the books, which explains why an estimated 165,000 tons of white pages phone books end up in landfills every year. In addition, 74.3 per cent said they didn't know that an estimated five million trees needed to be cut down per year to publish the white pages phone book.

Prior to being told about the estimated environmental damage, 48.9 per cent indicated they would support opt-in programs. Once US adults learned of the considerable environmental waste and financial impact of printing and recycling white pages phone books, 82.7 per cent ranked themselves as "angry" to "outraged." This anger and outrage led to a 32.1 percent increase in support of an "opt-in" program, with a total 81 per cent of US adults saying they would support an opt-in program to have a positive impact on the environment and save taxpayers millions of dollars each year.

In an effort to educate consumers on the environmental impact of printing and distributing the white pages phone book, online directory WhitePages has started the "BanThePhoneBook" initiative. One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of eliminating the white pages phone books is that laws in many states require phone companies to publish and deliver white pages phone books to every landline subscriber. BanThePhoneBook.org will serve as an educational hub for helping environmentally conscious consumers get involved and take action to curb the unsolicited, and unnecessary, mass printing and automatic delivery of white pages phone books.

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