Phone Book Recycling in the Alberni Valley

April 2007
Submitted by Maureen Sager for the Alberni Environmental Coalition (AEC).

The Alberni Environmental Coalition has conducted a telephone book recycling campaign since 1993. In that time, we have recycled over 61,000 phone books and contributed over $4,000 to Valley elementary schools’ fund raising efforts.

In 1993, Telus contacted the AEC inviting us to participate in a recycling program that they would fund. We were happy to do this and we advertised and collected 2,400 books at our first office at Gertrude near Johnson, behind the Post Office. At least 2,000 people and businesses who wanted a place to recycle their phone books responded. At that time, there was no paper recycling service in the Valley.

Two years later, we began collecting books through the elementary schools and paying them 10 cents per book collected. Judith Hutchison, a Valley teacher and AEC member, organized school participation in the campaign. A letter was sent to all Valley schools asking if they wanted to participate. The secondary schools decided not to participate due to concerns over piles of phone books in the halls and students throwing them around. The elementary schools responded to the call and thus began a practical and educational program which gave young children an on-the-ground example of recycling, a start to learning to care for the planet.

Numbers of books collected immediately increased and continued to go up to over 7,000 in 2003.
In the mid-nineties, Telus sold the phone book publication business to SuperPages, a company which changed hands several times in following years, but continued sponsoring the program until 2004. Sometimes the remuneration cheques would come from Texas!

When SuperPages discontinued the funding, the AEC, wanting to continued the program, approached City Council and the Regional District for help. They suggested we approach Norse Canada. Since then, Norske Canada and later Catalyst Paper have donated $500 for the last three years enabling us to continue the campaign in the schools. The money provides the AEC with funds to advertise the campaign, pays money to the schools and covers costs of picking-up the phone books in our venerable old trail-building truck which just keeps on truckin’.

For some years, we transported the books to towns where there was paper recycling available, first to Parksville and then to Nanaimo. Happily, when Sunbird began their much-needed recycling services in the Valley, they agreed to take the phone books for recycling as a service to the community thus enabling us to increase our advertising. Through the years, we have bought over $5,000 dollars worth of local advertising in newspapers and on the radio and sent out many press releases about the campaign.

Funding from gaming sources, first Nordley’s and now Dob City’s bingo operations, have enabled us to keep our office open so we can operate this and other educational programs.

So far this campaign has been a win-win situation for the AEC, local elementary schools, local media and the public. It has kept 61,000 phone books out of the Landfill and didn’t cost the taxpayer anything.