In an effort to “Go Green,” many people are seeking to discontinue the delivery of their Yellow Pages and similar telephone directories. Experts attribute this movement to an emerging generation that prefers to use online and mobile resources when searching for businesses.

“Yellow Page usage among people say, below (age) 50, will drop to zero or near zero over the next five years,” Bill Gates said at a summit in May of this year. Researchers at the Kelsey Group have found similar results, stating as younger generations begin making larger purchases, they will move away from traditional search methods like phone books and “use online resources at the expense of traditional media.” They add that businesses will have to adapt to these new online methods as the phone book becomes obsolete.

This method is “faster and more efficient and helps preserve the planet’s resources,” according to Geoff Wilson at Pseudofish.com.And how much of the planet’s resources could be saved in this effort? Environmentalist Larry West writes that, according to Green Valley Recycling in Los Gatos, Calif., and Modesto’s Parks and Recreation Department, if every American recycled their phone books for a year:
We would save up to 650,000 tons of paper
Free up to 2 million cubic yards of landfill space
And, for every 500 phone books recycled, we could save:
7,000 gallons of water
17-31 trees
4,100 kilowatts of electricity—enough to power an average home for six months.