Letter: Verizon should be fined $15 million for littering

Posted 11/27/19

To the editor:

It’s disappointing to see that Verizon continues to waste trees on obsolete Yellow Pages. And it’s irritating as heck that they see fit to toss these relics into our …

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Letter: Verizon should be fined $15 million for littering

Posted

To the editor:

It’s disappointing to see that Verizon continues to waste trees on obsolete Yellow Pages. And it’s irritating as heck that they see fit to toss these relics into our yards and driveways once a year, wrapped in plastic, no less. As far as I’m concerned, they just littered all over town. 

So here’s an idea: Back in 2014, the maximum fine for littering in Rhode Island was doubled to $1,000. And that’s just the first offense. Do it a second time, and it can cost you $5,000. There are approximately 6,000 households in Barrington. Assuming half of these households are smarter than I am and already knew there was an opt out option, we’ll say 3,000 incidents of littering happened today. That means Verizon should be fined, well, just under $15 million. And guess what, another 2014 change allows 30 percent of a fine to go to local law enforcement. That’s over $4 million for our police department. Not too shabby.

It’s unlikely my idea will come to fruition, so instead, I strongly urge all Barrington residents who do not use the printed Yellow Pages to go to yellowpagesoptout.com today and reduce the amount of waste dumped in our town.

Thank you.

Kira Cortese

Barrington

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