The company is now contacting all 130 local authorities served by its collection subsidiary, Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, to inform them of the announcement.
” Recovering Yellow Pages translates to additional tonnage diverted from the waste stream, which is great news all round. “
– Ron Humphreys, Abitibi-Consolidated
Abitibi, which recycles paper at its Bridgewater mill in Ellesmere Port, has said the move ends “years of exclusion” of the directories from standard recycling systems for newsprint production.
Announcing the decision, managing director Ron Humphreys said: “Recovering Yellow Pages translates to additional tonnage that is diverted from the waste stream and recycled into newsprint, which is great news all round.”
Newspapers and magazines from more than 3 million homes are collected for recycling at the Bridgewater mill, where it serves as the raw material for 100% recycled newsprint for use in UK newspapers.
” The development at Bridgewater Mill in accepting old Yellow Pages directories is a very positive step.“
– Matthew Pentland, Yell Ltd
The Yellow Pages uses about 40,000 tonnes of paper in the production of 100 printed directory editions in the UK each year. The number of councils able to collect the directories for recycling has now increased to 88% of local authorities, up from 55% in 1998.
Grants
Responding to Abitibi-Consolidated's move, Yell publishing environment manager Matthew Pentland said: “The development at Bridgewater Mill in accepting old Yellow Pages directories is a very positive step towards every household being able to recycle their old directory.”
Yellow Pages directories can and are recycled into various products including cardboard, animal bedding, packaging materials, egg boxes, loft insulation and compost, its publisher said.
Mr Pentland said: “The Yellow Pages Directory Recycling Scheme offers grants to local authorities across the UK to help offset the cost of running recycling facilities and increase the number of directories being recycled.”
Further information on the recycling of Yellow Pages directories can be obtained by calling the directory recycling helpline on 0800 671 444.
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