Friday, August 15, 2008

Stop printing phone books 2 - You can't opt out!

PhoneBook.jpgIt's a year since I posted about how I thought printing phone books and distributing them was a waste in the days of the on-line phone directory.

As I researched I discovered that you can opt out by contacting Sensis on 1800 810 211 and opting out. So I did opt out, but here we are, a year later and they delivered the White pages again.

Who's paying for these unwanted giant print runs? What is the impact on the environment? Why is it apparently impossible to opt out?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006-07), the internet is widely available in households, 31% had dial-up access and 68% had broadband. (Does that make 99% or do some households have both?).

In 2006-07 5.1 million households have home internet access, (it went up from 2.3 million in that period so no doubt it's even higher now).

Sensis "Green Office" program is not working. I've contacted them about this and received an acknowledgement but so far no actual reply.

3 comments:

Honestpuck said...

Marxy,

You think you got it bad. I opted out via Sensis at both my Neutral Bay flat and my new home in Newcastle.

I still got all four volumes in Sydney. In Newcastle the day I got the phone books I brought them in off my front porch and the next day another set was delivered!

That's threee complete sets in two locations, both opted out via Sensis.

Since Sensis is owned by Telstra I guess we can expect no better.

Tony

Peter Marks said...

I wonder if we can order extra copies to burn for heating?

Honestpuck said...

Unfortunately burning them for heating produces both carbon dioxide but high levels of soot. Not good for the environment.

I'd recommend soaking them for a few days in water, dry till solid then run through a wood chipper. After that you can either feed them to your worms or your compost heap. In fact I'd recommend the same treatment for the senior staff at both Sensis and Telstra :-).