What can I do with all of those telephone books?

North Carolina State Government offices annually receive thousands of telephone books from companies such as BellSouth, The Talking Phone Book, and Verizon.  In many cases, duplicate and triplicate copies of telephone books servicing the same geographical area are delivered.  Eventually, thousands of old and new telephone books must be recycled which costs the state time and money.

North Carolina State Government has maintained a long standing arrangement with BellSouth which allows the state to modify the number of telephone books ordered each year.   For the last several years the number of telephone books ordered through BellSouth has declined. 

North Carolina State Government offers the following suggestions regarding waste reduction and telephone books:

• Order as few telephone books as possible.  Every employee and future employee does not need a personal telephone book.

• Designate a location for the telephone books in each office area.  An entire office could get by with using two copies of the telephone book.

• Use Internet telephone directories and/or BellSouth's Real White Pages and Yellow Pages on CD-ROM to find telephone numbers

• Participate in the annual telephone book recycling campaign during February, March, and April instead of  throwing them away.