By Editorial Staff
In coming years, unwanted Yellow Pages won’t be left on the front stoops of homes lining the hilly boulevards of the City by the Bay, after the near-unanimous passage of legislation by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week.
Sponsored by Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, the ordinance makes delivery of Yellow Pages “opt-in,” meaning that residents have to ask for the directories to be delivered to them. Chiu says that this is better than the “opt-out” option — and closer to helping the city reach its sustainability goals — because forcing residents to say they don’t want something they get automatically “goes against human inertia.”
“The over-distribution of telephone directories results in an unconscionable waste of natural resources, and costs the City over one million dollars every year to process through our refuse system,” said Melanie Nutter, Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment in a press release announcing the passage of the ordinance. “Supervisor Chiu’s common sense legislation will save ratepayer money and bring San Francisco one step closer to its goal of zero waste in 2020.”