The Carbon County Outdated Telephone Directory program is about to get underway.

From Feb. 1 to 18, elementary school students throughout the county will be competing to collect the most phone books.Participating schools should be sending information home with their students and will be keeping track of how many phone books are brought in. After the program ends the recycling office will pick up the books from the schools.Since the program's inception in 1996 over 300,000 phone books have been collected, recycled and/or reused as animal bedding on local farms.For more information contact the county's department of solid waste at (610) 852-5111 or your local elementary school.In addition to prizes for the most books collected, the department of solid waste will also give an award to the student who brings in the oldest telephone book. This book must be kept separate from other books.