Lulham hopes to regulate wasteful phone book distribution

“I received a Yellow Pages book yesterday on my front balcony, and it’s the third one I’ve gotten in as many months,” she said. “There are many different companies putting them out, and the apartment building next to me got 12. Here we are trying to be a sustainable city and they’re able to distribute these without any permit. They sit outside the apartment buildings and then end up in people’s blue boxes. What an enormous waste.”

Lulham, who has attended many Federation of Canadian Municipalities meetings over the years as Westmount city council’s delegate, said she made a motion to the FCM. “Back when these were part of Bell Canada, they received the ability to distribute them door to door, both the phone book and the Yellow Pages,” she said.

Lulham contacted the Yellow Pages and was told they now have a list of where residents can ask to not have Bell phone books delivered to their homes, although this doesn’t affect directories delivered by other companies. “If you don’t want the Bell Yellow Pages, you can go on their web site and you can ask not to have it delivered,” Lulham said. “You have to do it each year, however, which I find a bit ridiculous. So we are hoping the Federation of Canadian Municipalities will step in. But it’s such a waste of a resource and many people, including myself, use a computer. I think those who want it should be able to get it, but if you don’t want it you should be able not to get it.”

Photo: Martin C. Barry