Quote:
Originally Posted by Goshzilla
Paper is a hard industry to compete against in terms of efficientcy. Very little from a tree is wasted, they even use woodchippings and discarded branches from lumber factories, so that little of any tree is wasted. Most consumer grade paper not labeled as 100% recycled is about 30% recycled. How often does an ebook reader say "30% recycled electronics?" probably none.
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True, but more than materials efficiency is at stake here, it's also use of other resources and power in production. The rest of the paper equation is the cost of the large amount of electricity, water and toxic chemicals used to produce paper (and those figures probably don't account for environmental issues pertaining to toxic runoff often accompanying paper production).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goshzilla
This study seems to compare reading ebooks to producing the same duration on paper. So there is a loss of electronic efficientcy if someone were to re-read the same book electronically, versus reading the same paper book. Rereading a book electronically would have the same impact on the environment as producing another paper book. While re-reading the same paper book would not.
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Fair point. However, there is so much printed material that is only read once, like newspapers and magazines, and I think this was what the study was directly referencing. There is a huge industry devoted to producing paper newsprint on a daily basis, so you'd be talking about a significant environmental savings by converting newsprint alone to e-books.