NYNEX Recycles Old Phone Books Into Envelopes

BOSTON -- NYNEX is making great strides to keep old phone books from going to waste. In conjunction with Earth Day, New England customers will discover that their monthly phone bills will now contain a payment remittance envelope made from recycled Yellow Pages and White Pages directories.

The remittance envelopes are made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper, with at least 75% coming from phone books. Working with the U.S. Postal Service, a paper supplier and an envelope manufacturer, NYNEX has managed to institute the program at no additional cost. When the recycled envelopes come back to NYNEX, they are recycled again.

"By using recycled envelopes, we are creating a new, additional market for old directories," said Ken Teal, Director of Environmental Issues for NYNEX Information Resources Co., publisher of NYNEX's White Pages and Yellow Pages. "We've now created the opportunity for every phone book to be recycled and, in fact, are beginning to realize that the demand for old phone books happily is exceeding the supply." Teal adds that the average NYNEX directory, which weighs 2.3 pounds, produces approximately 400 envelopes.

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