Yellow Pages Anger Grows

24 hours ago, I wrote a post about the pollution caused by Yellow New Zealand's physical advertising books.

Despite my small following, this is starting to go viral

Newstalk ZB's Heather Du Plessis-Allan interviewed me last night at 5.40pm on her prime time Drive show.

Unanimous support followed throughout her show. Kiwis hate this waste!

Scott Simpson, MP for the Coromandel, and New Zealand National Party Spokesperson for the Environment, just spoke brilliantly on ZB! [Adding this link below is my only edit to the original article]

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/audio/scott-simpson-nationals-environment-spokesman-criticises-yellow-pages-business-model

Where is:

1. New Zealand Labour Party?
2. Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand?
3. ACT New Zealand?
4. Māori Party (no Linked In page)?

We'd also love to hear from:

• Greenpeace
• Auckland Council
• Other Councils

This story only broke last night. More media is coming...

Sadly, the environmental damage appears to be far worse than my 609 tonne estimate:

• The ZB short article says that Yellow is still dumping these on 93% of houses and businesses even though it appears from all the evidence that 90%+ bin them straight away!
• In a 2013(!) article, Gareth Hughes, former Green MP, said 6.5m of these books were printed, wrapped, and distributed that year!
• There has been a 681,350 (15.4%) increase in population since then from 4.4m to 5.1m
• Multiply this by a 93% delivery rate = 6,974,543 Yellow books
• x666g weight (ironically) = 4,645 tonnes produced!
• x80% binned straight away (a conservative estimate) = 3,716 tonnes of waste!!
• WAY WAY MORE than my initial estimate of 600 tonnes. I guess this is why Yellow told me "Jeez those are some interesting 'alternative facts'"?

Yellow wrote a very disappointing and condescending reply on my original post. (Go to post, sort comments by most recent, scroll down, and respond to their comment if you wish).

Yellow also insinuated I did the post to generate business leads?!! WTF?!! This is all I did yesterday. Fielding calls and messages from supporters and media from the 99% of Kiwis who want to see less waste. I did zero work for clients. And you don't do this to "generate leads for your business" as Yellow accused me of below. This is the opposite of making money. It’s pursuing a social cause. It's putting the planet first, and profits last. Something we should all strive to do more of.

Here is a screenshot of their reply:

Yellow then got their staff, suppliers and fellow junk mail polluters to like it which was great, as we now have a lot of people who can answer the good and fair questions New Zealand wants answers to...

16 hours on, and I still haven't received a single answer to a single question. Very disappointing and cowardly.

The questions just keep piling up too...

• Yellow - are you printing as many of these books as you can so that you can tell potential advertisers that X million get sent out?
• We can’t spam people with email advertising. Why do you think it’s ok to spam households and businesses with your physical advertising which is incredibly damaging for the environment?
• Were these even printed in New Zealand? (the environmental impact is obviously even greater if not)
• Do you even care about the environment?

Yellow will likely try one of these flawed defenses in their comms and PR releases today:

"You can recycle them"

Most of the environmental damage is done well before the end-of-life recycling point:

• Cutting trees down
• Using chainsaws, winches, skidders, cartage, and other forestry gear
• A large quantity of nasty chemicals are used in the pulp and paper process
• Ink is also terrible for the planet
• Yellow is putting every single book in a plastic wrap
• They're also putting a plastic band around bundles
• And then there are all the fossil fuel costs from carting these all over NZ (and shipping over oceans if these were printed offshore). 

Recycled doesn’t mean good for the environment! Do we have a problem around our nations understanding of what recycling means?

Recycling is not a circular economy on its own. It doesn’t magically make everything all right. As I said above, most of the environmental damage has already been done well before the recycling stage.

[I'm not an environmental impact and recycling expert. Are you? It'd be great to learn more so that I can answer more of these recycling questions.]

"Geoff's numbers aren't correct"

Then what are the correct numbers, Yellow? Is it lower? Is it higher? The new evidence of 6.5m books printed in 2013 and you dumping these on 93% of Kiwi households and businesses suggest that I severely undercooked my 609 tonne estimate. I'm worried it's now as high as 3,000 tonnes or more. I keep crunching the numbers and keep coming up with the same massive numbers. If I've made a mistake, please tell me! You replied on my post and I asked you this question but you won't reply with any answers.

• Were these printed in New Zealand?
• How many tonnes did you send out?
• What % are dumped straight away, because the evidence suggests 90%+ of Kiwis are throwing them straight in the bin.

"Anyone can opt-out"

Firstly, this is a deeply flawed argument. We should never have to opt-out of pollution we never opted-in to! OPT-OUT is a COP-OUT!

• People are busy and shouldn't have to spend time researching, and going online to complete this (or phone or in-person if they don't have sufficient internet connection, devices, and computer skills).
• The opt-out process is a barrier. It puts profits first and planet last. Yellow should ask for permission to send these to us, just like any other Kiwi business.
• Yellow know a) only 7% have opted out through this process despite b) most books being instantly dumped.
• Even when you do opt-out, like I have done at two different addresses now, Yellow still send these to many unsubscribers in error (or lack of care).
• Yellow are still putting them into properties with clear “NO JUNK MAIL” signs (they might argue this isn’t junk mail. The majority of Kiwis disagree.)
• Why isn’t this the same as email and you have to ask Kiwis to opt in, just like spam email under the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007. Physical mail is far more damaging than a digital email.
• Is this a hangover from your SOE days, Yellow? Why do you still think you have a right to send these out?

"There are 86m lookups per year (7.2m per month"

• How can you measure that when these are physical books in personal homes and businesses?
• 86m per year (7.2m per month) is only 235k per day = ONLY 0.046 per Kiwi per day.
• Yellow might exclude young children who can't read yet, but even their most optimistic figures presented still make for very poor reading.
• They might also try to exclude non-users, but then that only fuels the argument for them to stop polluting the planet for most of us who don't want them.
• If the product was wanted, rather than 7 million lookups per month, wouldn't they be getting something like 7 million lookups per day?
• Does anyone know how many Google searches are done in New Zealand each day/month/year?

"Geoff photoshopped an image"

• I didn't actually, I used SnagIt, but it clearly resonated with Kiwis to connect your books with the pollution they cause.
• I did this as a citizen to make a stance because you aren’t listening to the people.
• I gave you every opportunity to be on the front foot with this issue last year and you defiantly told New Zealand that you would not be changing your behaviour.

Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has a very clear stance on climate change for the country:

"This is my generation's nuclear-free moment, and I am determined that we will tackle it head on."

Yet Yellow continues to pollute our planet with unnecessary, unwanted, unsolicited waste.

Are we going to act, or are we just going to sit around and talk about it?

What gives Yellow the right to pollute like this, especially in this time of environmental concern, climate change, and social responsibility?

There are far smarter solutions for getting a product minorities who want it. It’s 2021 for goodness sake.

Even those who want a Yellow book, surely don't want Yellow to blanket the nation in pollution and place 1,000s of tonnes of waste onto our planet?

It’s bad for business, and bad for the planet.

The country is speaking, and Yellow is not listening.

It is a major problem with an easy win-win-win solution for the planet, Kiwis, and Yellow.

You can almost always turn a negative into a positive.

Instead of their current line of defense, if I was leading Yellow, I'd listen to the country and go "hard and early" with something along these lines:

"We've listened to New Zealand.

We've thought long and hard.

And we're going to bring forward our decision to discontinue these physical books again except for the needy who require them AND opt in.

We are committed to a digital future for New Zealand and the world.

We are committed to environmental sustainability.

And we challenge all other physical mail creators to join us.

From conflict comes change.

We're excited about this change, and its power to liberate us as a business, a nation, and a planet."

But that's just my view. What's yours?