The Iowa State Recycling Committee and the Ames Area Recycling Center have boosted the number of phone books recycled in Iowa with their recent campaign.

The 2,896 tons of phone books recycled by the committee would cover a football field in a layer five feet deep, said Michelle Stouwie, assistant manager of the Ames Area Recycling Center.

She said the committee’s effort saved the equivalent of 49,238 trees.

This is the fifth year ISU has been involved in the program, and the success of the program is due largely to the help of volunteers.

This year only nine students and staff volunteers contributed their time and effort to the cause, down from the usual 15 helpers.

The volunteers take three to five hours on Saturday afternoons to collect all the bins from campus, and then they take their collections to the recycling center.

At the recycling center they put the phone books in two separate bins, one each for Telecom and US West. The bins stay out for about a month, allowing people to donate their old phone books.

Gloria Erickson, program assistant for facilities planning and management and a member of the ISU Recycling Committee, said this year’s turnout was lower than previous years.

“We didn’t see the volume this year as we did in 1996,” Erickson said. “We need to make students aware of the program so they will participate.”

The combined total of both Telecom and US West phone books from ISU and the Ames community was 22,784 pounds, Stouwie said.

The total of US West phone books recycled from 1991-1995 was more than 72,000 tons.

That amount is equal to a football field-sized pile 134 feet deep, or more than 13 stories high, Stouwie said.