Quote:
Originally Posted by meeera
There have been environmental impact studies, and as far as the manufacture of the ereader goes (which is by far the greatest share of its impact), you "break even" after maybe 30-50 books, depending on your assumptions.
|
The problem, as I said, is not with manufacturing. Manufacturing can be controlled. Disposal cannot. And it's not the persistent plastics that end up in landfills -- it's the metals and chemicals that end up in the food chain.
All these studies pit some mythical e-reader against a prototypical library of books, but anyone who reads these forums KNOWS that people who own e-readers own LOTS of e-readers.
So, yes, there is environmental impact to the creation of an e-reader that can be compared to the impact of creating a book. Yes, there is environmental impact to the delivery of an e-reader that can be compared to the environmental impact of delivering a book. You might even dare to compare the use of a reading light to the powering of an e-reader and the network infrastructure to support it. BUT, when you send a book to a landfill, it just goes away. That's never true for an e-reader. Eventually, someone is going to eat or bathe in the toxic residue of the e-reader.
There are certainly worse things for the environment than e-readers, but books are not on that list.