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Where Is Al Gore?

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 20, 2007

If you're like me, you recently received another sack of phone books at your door. I am so sick and tired of these bloody things I could scream! Within the past six months 13-plus pounds of near-useless paper has been dumped at my doorstep. We didn't ask for the phone books. We did not put out an urgent call to Verizon or AT&T to please bring us some more dead trees or child booster seats. There they were anyway waiting annoyingly on our front stoop.

Does anyone other than my 60-year-old, non-computer-using mother still rely on these things? Let's take a quick look at the environmental impact of these door stops.

As of 2005, there were about 125,000,000 households in the United States. Each household receives about 30 pounds of phone books each year. So 125,000,000 x 30 = 3,750,000,000 pounds of paper per year!

Common sense, seriously lacking in today's world, is still the most important tool we can pass on to future generations.

SCOTT MARCHETTI

Riverview

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