Wendell Sloan, right, handed new GTE telephone books to Paul McDonald on Jan. 12, 1993, as delivery got underway in Lexington, Nicholasville and Versailles. In 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE and named the new entity Verizon Communications. Photo by Tim Sharp | Staff

Less than two weeks later, Truman Bottom unloaded used GTE telephone books at a Lexington-Fayette County Urban County Government receiving area on Jan. 25, 1993. The phone books were made into 125 tons of recycled mulch, which was used to seed strip-mine reclamation projects. At the time, officials hoped to recycle at least 25 percent of the 250,000 telephone books in Fayette and Jessamine counties. Photo by Tim Sharp | Staff