TRUMBULL COUNTY Phone-book recycling to aid event

Recycling by area residents can promote literacy.
By JENNINE ZELEZNIK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The new Yellow Pages are hitting the streets this month, which means it's time to get rid of that outdated, so last-millennium phone book.
Instead of chucking that thick pile of pages into the nearest trash bin, why not be hip, cool and oh-so-21st century - and recycle it? To top it all off, you'd even be helping a local literacy program.
What's happening: Sprint is sponsoring the first Trumbull Countywide Recycle for Literacy event from 8 a.m. to noon July 21 at the Wal-Mart on Elm Road. For every half-ton of phone books collected that day, Sprint will donate $1,000 (up to $3,000) to the Warren-based Alliance Community Outreach Program, company representative Lindsey Trosper said.
She said that amounts to about 1,000 phone books.
The outreach program has been teaching literacy to local residents for about a year, director Charlene W. Allen said. Sprint contacted it a month ago about the recycling fund-raiser, she said.
"Anytime somebody wants to give you money to do something you're already doing, it's a positive thing," Allen said.
Sprint started the fund-raiser in some communities last year, Trosper said, as a way to further two of its community outreach objectives: recycling and literacy.
"This is a great way to combine both efforts and get local folks involved, rather than simply writing a check," she said.
Why Trumbull County? The phone company, which distributes directories to more than 130,500 Trumbull County homes, chose this county for its program because of the work the Alliance Community Outreach Program is doing, Trosper said.
"We also look at communities where the residents have been interested in recycling and the environment," she added.
The Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste Management District will be collecting the phone books that day on behalf of Sprint. The district has been working with the phone company for the past few years, recycling phone books donated by area residents, director Robert Villers said. Last year, more than 18 tons of phone books were recycled over the summer months, Villers said.