Poof! Gone! Credit: VIA FLICKR
Poof! Gone!
  • VIA FLICKR
  • Poof! Gone!

In order to make most of the city-enforced yellow pages opt-out website launched today, make sure you opt-out of Dex Pages delivery—the first to deliver and the largest publisher in Seattle—by May 16.

Under the city’s new opt-out ordinance, yellow pages publishers can be fined up to $125 per phone book if they deliver directories to residents who opt-out at least 30 days before scheduled delivery. The new online registry lets you choose which yellow pages you want to receive or halts delivery altogether.

Later in the summer, residents will also be able to call or mail-in their preferences.

The city’s opt-out ordinance has been attacked by the Local Search Association, formerly the Yellow Pages Association (wonder whether the name change has something to do with the fact that yellow pages are becoming more and more obsolete) who paint it as a violation of their First Amendment rights. The LSA insists that the city’s website is a waste because the association already operates a national opt-out registry. The two sides are currently battling out their differences in court.

This morning Dex, SuperMedia, and LSA filed a request for a temporary restraining order (.pdf) against the ordinance so that Dex can go ahead with its printing and distribution as usual until the court hands down a decision.

Seattle Council Member Mike O’Brien says that the city’s website provides real accountability. “Phone book companies must comply with peoples’ choices or face penalties,” he says.

The U.S. Postal Service and Seattle Public Utilities estimates that Seattle homes and businesses receive an estimated 17,500 tons of junk mail and yellow pages phone books—approximately 100 pounds of waste per household—every year.

The city’s website will also allow you to stop junk mail services.

19 replies on “Opt-Out By May 16 to Stop Dex From Littering Your Doorstep!”

  1. I need to create a login? A login!? Yet another unsecure database with my e-mail address and plaintext password, great!

    Fuckkkkkkkkkkkk that. How about I just type in an address and you stop dumping trash there?

  2. And once I create that login and activate the account, it tells me that I don’t have an address in the delivery zone for the phonebooks delivered in Seattle – though I get 20 of the fucking things every year…

  4. Why, why why are they so goddamned determined to deliver something to me that I don’t want? Are they sadists? Do they think I’ll magically decide to use their book once I’ve got it rather than use Google?

  6. @4, you don’t understand. They don’t give a fuck what you do with the book. You can immediately recycle it, and they could care less. You are a statistic for their circulation to justify their ad rates. Nothing more.

    They make money by selling yellow page ads to businesses. They justify their rates by telling business owners that 300,000 people will see their ad. The cost of advertising in almost any print publication, including yellow pages, is based on circulation. So if thousands of people opt-out of the yellow pages, their ad rates will plummet.

  7. this website is slow and not laid out very well

    15 minutes and about 10 page loads later, i haven’t figured out how to opt out of anything

    but it looks pretty

  10. @8: And yet, better because I don’t have to give all my personal deets to the assholes at the Yellowpages companies. Why the fuck do they need my telephone number and email address? Sleazeballs.

    So, while I’m removing these guys, what other junk mailers should i drop?

  11. We’re sorry, but something went wrong.

    We’ve been notified about this issue and we are working on it right now. Please check back shortly.

    The yellow page ninjas have attacked the thing!

  12. Come one guys. It took me about 5 minutes to sign up with my alternate email address and opt out of every phone book delivery. If you can post your whiny complaints to Slog, you are more than capable of opting out.

  14. yeah this website is really horrible. for my 98103 zipcode i have to opt out of all 6 phone books one by one. too much time/too much work. you can still recycle the things anyway. or shred them.

  15. If you live in an apartment or condo building won’t they still just leave a pile of them down in the lobby without reference to who in the building has opted out or not?

  19. I opted out in seconds, I don’t know what the fuss is.

    *click click* YOU MEAN THE INTERNETS AREN’T INSTANT THIS PLACE IS SOOOOOO 22ND CENTURY LIKE OMG.

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