Why Can't We Opt Out of Receiving the Phone Book?

Once a year, Aucklanders receive 9 centimetres or so of paper and cardboard, whether they want it or not. I'm talking about the phone book. It feels like people have been talking for years about instituting an opt-out system for phone books, but still we get it every year, whether we want it or not. Why? The Yellow Pages says:

Our research shows that 83% of people believe that it is important or extremely important that the phone book is still delivered. At present it is a regulatory requirement to produce and deliver a phone book to every New Zealand household.

If that statistic is accurate, my apartment block must be full of people in the other 17%, given that this is what the pile looked like when the phone books were delivered a week ago:

and today, a week later (and moved into the lobby), the pile looks like this:

New Zealand comedy icon Rhys Darby has been tweeting up an amusing storm about alternative uses for the recently delivered phone books. His suggestions include:

Let's gather all the phone books of the world and build a giant labyrinth. Then capture a Bigfoot, put him in there and see who finds him!

Given the choice, I'd definitely opt out of receiving the phone book. I'm never far from my computer, where I can look up phone numbers online in an instant. I think the phone book is obsolete for a significant number of people, and they should be able to avoid having 9 cm of wasted paper and cardboard dropped on their doorstep each year. If you feel the same way and want to tell the people who can change the system, the Yellow Pages advises:

We constantly monitor the requests for opt-outs and at present there are very few which means we do not currently offer this as an option. If you would like to register your interest, please contact the Yellow™ Customer Assist Team on 0800 803 803.

I'm interested to know whether you feel the same way about phone books. Would you like to be able to opt out of receiving a new phone book each year? Or do you have an ingenious alternative use for phone books?