Recyclers Collect 23,600 Phone Books : Countywide

About 23,600 used telephone books have been collected in a recycling effort aimed at saving trees and preventing the books from taking up space in landfills, officials announced this week.

Phone book collection sites were operated for three weeks by The Ventura County Telephone Book Recycling Coalition, a group that included legislators, business representatives and city officials.

Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), a member of the coalition, said: “I am hopeful that this program will expand the life and capacity of our landfills. It is a private-public partnership in the best interest of future generations.”

Altogether, the phone books amounted to 94,500 pounds of paper, equivalent to the amount produced by cutting 800 trees, said Jeff Bowling, a legislative aide for O’Connell.

Residents who turned in books were given oak seedlings to plant, Bowling said.

Books that were turned in were taken to a recycling plant in Simi Valley, and from there to Long Beach Harbor, where the paper will be shipped overseas, Bowling said.

Pacific Bell Directory donated $2,000 for the tree seedlings, Bowling said.

Sponsors of the recycling effort included: Pacific Bell Directory; GTE, California; MCI; Pardee Construction of Camarillo; Waste Management of Oxnard; Procter & Gamble of Oxnard; Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club; 3M Photodyne of Camarillo; E.J. Harrison & Sons of Ventura; Make-A-Difference Foundation of Oxnard; Ventura County; Ventura Regional Sanitation District; Channel Islands Beach Community Service District; and the cities of Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme and Ojai.