San Francisco May Have This One Right

San Francisco has banned the unsolicited delivery of Yellow Pages directories in the city limits.  Here's the idea.  There are thousands of these books tossed on the street or at houses, apartments, and other housing locations where the book is never even opened.  The San Francisco Land Use Committee made the recommendation, and the city's Board Of Supervisors agreed earlier this month.

Yellow Pages may no longer be indiscriminately strewn on the streets of the city by the Bay.  The directories have made an effort to help people request directories with a special website.  The idea to ban Yellow Pages comes as the books are generally unused.

The website, the Huffington Post, had this to say about the ban,

The Yellow Pages phone book. It's been used as packaging material, a dangerous booster seat, fire kindling, and perhaps a box for illicit items if holed-out. But in an increasingly digital age, just how often is the phone book actually used to make phone calls? San Francisco believes it's not often enough to warrant general distribution.

More than one million phone books were distributed in San Francisco, totaling over five million pounds of paper just in the city alone.   A recent study suggests than 70% of adults in the U.S. do not ever open a Yellow Pages directory.

With the cost to the city taxpayers for cleaning up after the mess left by these directories, perhaps this is an idea who's time has come.  With the push toward green in Billings, maybe we should think about eliminating phone books too.  Leave your thoughts in the comments.