UK Recylcing Efforts Reach 10 Year Mark
While those that are opposed to any print Yellow Pages will insist the industry has been a later comer to eco-oriented business practices, an announcement today from the UK is just another illustration of why the exact opposite is true.
Paper and cardboard reprocessor Smurfit Kappa Recycling is proudly celebrating 10 years of recycling Yellow Pages directories into new packaging materials. The company was one of the first UK companies to accept the telephone directories for recycling, a practice which had been going on even earlier in the US) and it is now reprocessing more than ever.
Environment manager Adam Billiald of the UK Yellow Pages publisher Yell (parent of the US based Yellow Book) noted in the press release that:
“…As a business committed to sustainability, it is important that residents can recycle their old Yellow Pages directories easily. For many years, the directories have been recycled into new products such as insulation materials, animal bedding, cardboard packaging and newsprint, proving that the Yellow Pages directory really is green….”
Congrats to Smurfit Kappa and Yell for achieving this milestone.
on May 6, 2010 on 8:50 pm
I applaud companies like Smurfit for accomplishing milestones like you mention. With that said, not everyone opposing the print Yellow Pages are because of environmental reasons. I should be more green myself.
When I see print books dropped off at boarded-up homes, businesses that are obviously closed and the X% of homes to don’t use them, I question circulation stats. Because of this, common sense make many people like me feel that these stats are inflated and businesses who choose to advertise in print YP are getting ripped off.
Nonetheless, kudos to Smurfit Kappa for their environmental efforts.
on May 7, 2010 on 9:34 am
@Paul Jahn:
I can only assume from your comments that you or your business does not currently buy print Yellow Pages advertising. If you did you would know that the overall circulation numbers for a book are only an initial gauge that businesses use in their ad buying decision. The real value comes in their tracking of the number of calls/visits they get from their ad program. That ROI is what the business is most interested in and why the print and online products continue to be used by advertisers — most programs average over $10 to $1 on that return.
No doubt that there are some X% as you say, books that don’t end up in the hands of users. When the publishers do find out about those, they will make reasonable efforts to recover them — those books cost money to print and no publisher wants to go back to press at the end of a book cycle to print more.
As you noted, sure, we could all be better at being green. Me, you, and of course the publishers too. The successful Smurfit Kappa effort shows the industry didn’t start being eco-friendly last week.
on May 11, 2010 on 10:31 am
When I stop seeing yellow pages at boarded-up homes, closed businesses and people complaining of getting something dropped on their door they don’t want, I’ll consider listening to stats provided by an insider.
Nonetheless, kudos to Smurfit Kappa for their environmental efforts.
on May 11, 2010 on 11:22 am
Bully for you. Why believe anything from an industry “insider” when you can look at plenty of sites with all kinds of fictional data from “outsiders”.
But just out of curiosity, how many people do you actually know that “complain of getting something dropped on their door they don’t want”??
on May 11, 2010 on 6:06 pm
Friends, neighbors, co-workers… Even my mother at 72 years young.
Nonetheless, kudos to Smurfit Kappa for their environmental efforts.
on May 17, 2010 on 6:47 pm
Now that’s a good sized sample from which you have drawn your conclusions.