I was driving to work today and spotted this scene– a stark reminder why we tell every law firm not to spend a penny on yellow pages. Doesn’t matter whether your clients are consumers, executives or other lawyers.

San Francisco even discussed fining publishers for doing what’s pictured here. Remember, you paid to have the books hung on these doorknobs.

Think of it environmentally. As the Huffington Post wrote: According to the Sierra Club, AT&T distributes nearly 1 million phone books per year to San Francisco alone — that’s over 5 million pounds of paper for that one area of California.

Here’s data confirming what an ABA survey also revealed: statistics suggest that approximately 70% of U.S. adults rarely or never use the phone book.

Even the National Yellow Pages Association and the Association of Directory Publishers has recognized this statistic, and recently launched YellowPagesOptOut, a website where customers can easily cancel their home delivery service.

Lots of law firms think they’ve eliminated these costs, but haven’t. Just this week one client found they were still spending $10,000. Another we’re writing a marketing plan for has been paying twice that for many years.