Even though it's easy to look up local phone numbers online, sometimes it's just as quick to check a dead-tree version of the phone book. It seems like I get a new version of my neighborhood Yellow Pages every month, so I guess a lot of people are still using them. Updated phone books are great to have on hand, but what do you do with the old ones?
Phone Book uses(click thumbnails to view gallery)
In the last year, I've acquired enough to start a small landfill of my own, so here's what I do with the leftovers:
1) Whenever I get new books, I toss the old ones in the trunk or under the front seat of my car. When I'm out and about looking for the nearest frame shop, or some other obscure business I don't patronize very often, I just grab the Yellow Pages and find what I need.
2) Old phone books are great for spontaneous art projects with my kids. There are hundreds of pictures, logos and drawings they can cut out and glue onto construction paper.
3) I use the books to help my children learn to look up words and practice finding things from alphabetical lists. I give my youngest son easy words to look up (dog sitter, school supplies), while I challenge my older boys to find harder things like lava lamp repair, or the corporate phone number of the local grocery store chain.
4) Artist Robert Truscio came up with a way to
turn old phone books into flip books. Though I haven't tried this yet, it's on my list of things to do.
5) Of course, the most popular use for old phone books is still as an impromptu booster seat for kids!
If you'd simply prefer to get rid of the darn things, check with your local waste collection service, because not all will collect them for recycling. If yours doesn't, the local phone company should be able to tell you the best way to discard them in your area.
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Reader comments (Page 2 of 2)
I'm from a small town area, and we get a updated phone bokk every few months, I keep them through the year, and around Christmas time, the grandkids and I sit around the kitchen table and make the old phone books into little christmas trees. Its a fun project, the kids love it, and the result is a handmade early christmas gift for a teacher, or principal, or bus driver, or favorite relative...anyone LOL
ReplyI give my old phone books to grade school teachers. When I was a kid, in class around the holidays, the teachers would ask us to bring in old telephone books for a project. We would then fold each page from the top at the seam down toward the middle. When complete, it makes a big fat Christmas Tree shape. Then we spray painted them green, white, gold or silver - whatever. Then added various embellishments - tree toppers, etc. Keeps kids occupied for a while, that's for sure!
ReplyI went to vacation Bible school when I was young and we made door stops out of old phone books. Take each page and half it, crease. Continue til all pages are half the size. Can be a time consuming project for a child and useful when finished.
ReplyI take pages from the old phone book and run them through the paper shredder. It makes great packing material for fragile objects and is a "green" alternative to styrofoam peanuts.
Replyi uses it in de outhouse no sears cataloc
ReplyPhone books should not be dropped on your door, you should get them ONLY if you ordered one, I have received 4 huge phone books from two different companies this year and I have recycled them both, i go to the internet to search for anything I need, Phone books in my house and many others are nothing but a waste.
ReplyI take the pages off one ata time and crumple them to make packing material for mailing items. I sell lots of glass items online and have never had one damaged.
ReplyCrumple the pages and.....
ReplyWindow/mirror wipers- good.
Kindling fire starters- good.
RECYCLE.... very good.
Just take a razer and run down the spine a few times. It's easy to rip those suckers apart so that they are no thicker than a magazine - put them in the recycle bin, along with newspapers and magazines.
AN UNUSUAL USE FOR OLD TELEPHONE BOOKS
ReplyBefore I retired, I was a county Judge. We reused obsolete telephone directories by stacking them behind the front of the bench in the courtroom. The Sheriff's office had done some testing and found that the telephone books were able to stop bullets. So, effectively, our bench was made bullet resistant (I do not want to say bullet "proof") by having the telephone directories stacked up on the inside. If we had "trouble" in the courtroom, we could duck underneath the bench until the trouble cleared.
To Kimberley with the Parrot who shreds the printed material....
ReplyPlease do not do this. The chemicals in the ink is being injested by the bird. You are going to make the bird ill and it could even die.
You would not let a child eat printed material - same goes for animals and birds.
My husband and I use them at the shooting range for targets. It's interesting to see which bullets from certain guns penetrate the whole book. When we are finished, we use them for backyard fire starters in our fire pit.
ReplyI'm short so I use the old books as a booster seat in my car.
ReplyI put the old books in bath room. Crumple a couple of pages and wipe.
ReplySpeaking of small towns, alot of good big city phone books need to be donated so they can have those booster seats when they have their own kids or visitors from out of town. Small town phonebooks don't do the trick unless you collect them for a few years. I sure never gave this a thought until I lived in a small town the first time myself.
ReplyWhile working as a teacher's aide.. one of our teachers taught me how to make xmas trees with old phone books. Then my children and I made quite a few for family and friends. Try it!
ReplyOld phone books are good for pressing flowers and ferns. Carefully place the flowers and leaves between the pages, then pile books or bricks on top of the phone book to press it. Check the flowers after a couple of weeks and they should be ready to use for pictures and crafts.
Replygreat for oil leaks under the car in the driveway
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