Calling all phone books

Summertime is phone book delivery time. Thousands of new phone books will be delivered to Pinellas County residents’ doorsteps. Please recycle old phone books instead of trashing them.

There are many convenient options to recycle phone books. Residents of Belleair, Clearwater, Dunedin, Gulfport, Indian Rocks Beach, Largo, Madeira Beach, Oldsmar, Redington Beach, Safety Harbor and St. Petersburg may recycle phone books in their curbside bin. In addition, there are over 340 local drop-off sites. See the attached listing, or visit www.pinellascounty.org/utilities/PDF/phone-book-sites.pdf. Please remove any magnets or plastic wrap before recycling phone books.

Each year, over 500 million telephone books are distributed nationwide—enough to circle the earth four times! A common myth is that phone books cannot be recycled, but they are 100% recyclable. Your old phone book can be recycled into insulation, cereal boxes, paper towels or new phone books.

You can cut waste if you receive more phone books than you need. For example, co-workers in an office can share phone books instead of receiving individual books. Another option is to use online listings instead of a hard copy. To stop deliveries of phone books at work or at home, visit www.YellowPagesOptOut.org. The website, provided by the Yellow Pages Association, covers both yellow and white page phone books.

For more information on recycling, contact Pinellas County Utilities at (727) 464-7500, or visit www.pinellascounty.org/recycle.

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