Chris's Sharebook 

U.S. citizens are consuming more and more beverages on the go, but city streets and public places often don't offer recycling bins. For the sake of convenience, many choose to discard their empty bottles and cans in the nearest trashcan rather than holding onto them to recycle later.

Despite earnest efforts to go green in recent years, U.S. citizens are only recycling 45% of cans today. This is down 20 percent from 1992's peak recycling rate of 65%. In general, recycling rates are higher in the 10 U.S. states and countries such as Brazil which have "bottle bills" -- mandatory 2.5 to 10 cent deposits on cans and bottles.

"Bottle bills" are not taxes; they are deposits that people get back after returning their empty bottles and cans. Paying a small deposit on recyclables will encourage consumers to hold onto and recycle empty containers rather than tossing them in the first available trash can.

Please sign the petition to stop the waste and create "bottle bills" in more states.

Every year, phone companies distribute 147 million phone books to consumers in compliance with state laws. As more and more consumers use the Internet to look up business and residential information, these books are becoming increasingly unnecessary. As the listings change little from year to year, many consumers without Internet access find the annual deliveries annoying and wasteful.

Printing and delivering phone books is costly, but state laws require phone companies to distribute them to everyone with a landline. Due to the unwieldy size of these books, most consumers throw away old versions with each new delivery. According to a survey conducted by WhitePages (an online directory unrelated to the printed books), fewer than 16% of respondents recycle their old phone books.

Recycling phone books costs taxpayers an estimated $17 million per year. The majority of books, which aren’t recycled, clutter up homes or build up in landfills and dumping grounds. Most consumers do not want or need regular phone book deliveries. Please sign the petition to allow consumers to opt out of receiving phone books.