Durham residents are now receiving new telephone directories and this year, instead of throwing away old directories in the household trash, the City of Durham wants to remind residents to recycle them in their curbside recycling bin instead.

According to Josephine Valencia, waste disposal manager for the City's Department of Solid Waste Management, tons of old phone directories are thrown away each year instead of being recycled. "According to the Environmental Protection Agency's 2005 estimate, 660,000 tons of telephone directories are distributed each year in this country, but only about 18 percent of them are recycled," Valencia said. "We want our residents to remember that old or unwanted directories are easy to recycle in Durham and can be placed year-round into either their curbside recycling bin or brought to one of City's recycling drop-off centers."

Valencia advises residents to remove any plastic bags, magnets or other attachments to their directories before recycling. In addition to curbside recycling, residents can visit one of the City's drop-off centers listed below to place their old directories into the mixed paper containers.

City of Durham Drop-Off Centers:
* Open 24-hours-a-day unless otherwise noted.
• Festival Shopping Center, 3457 Hillsborough Road
• Heritage Square Shopping Center, 401 East Lakewood Avenue
• Northgate Mall, 1058 West Club Boulevard
• TFC Recycling, 1017 South Hoover Road
• Southern Boundaries Park, 3400 Third Fork Road (enter from Archdale Drive)
• The Village Shopping Center, 1100 North Miami Boulevard
• Waste Disposal & Recycling Center, 2115 East Club Boulevard (* Monday - Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.)

For more information about curbside recycling, visit the City's Web site or contact Valencia at (919) 560-4186, extension 253 or via e-mail at Josephine.Valencia@durhamnc.gov.