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Kali Yuga · 02-17-2010, 04:22 PM

OK, let's look at a few facts (for a change)

. A few years ago, a study was done by the Book Industry Study Group and Green Press Initiative of the environmental impact of the book industry:

http://www.ecolibris.net/book_industry_footprint.asp
http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/...ds_summary.pdf

Key facts as of 2006/2007 include:
• US book industry alone uses 1.5 million metric tons of paper
• More than 1 billion books were unsold in the US in 2006. Looks like some of that is recycled, most goes to landfills
• 70% or more of the paper used by the book industry is NOT from tree farms, but is from forests
• Even re-seeding an existing forest is not a good thing, as you're still destroying the biodiversity of that environment
• Only around 15% or so of paper used by the book industry is recycled (that number is slowly increasing though)

Also, the Cleantech group did an impact study on the Kindle, and they believe that a Kindle's carbon footprint is the equivalent of roughly 23 books ( http://cleantech.com/news/4867/clean...-positive-envi ).

Now, I agree that ebook readers are not a "free lunch" and the above doesn't address all of the aforementioned issues (e.g. heavy metals, improper disposal of electronics). Ergo, you should be mindful of your impact, especially when disposing of gadgets (of all types). But he also seems to overlook the lack of recycling by the book industry and the energy used to create, inventory and deliver paper books -- most of which wind up as just surplus inventory.

So if you have an ebook reader, use it a handful of times, and toss it away, then I concur there's no advantage. But I'm fairly confident that the environmental impact, particularly the carbon footprint, of the book biz will drop as ebooks become a larger percentage of the business.

02-17-2010, 04:22 PM	#27
Kali Yuga Professional Contrarian Posts: 2,045 Karma: 3289631 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: Kindle 4 No Touchie	OK, let's look at a few facts (for a change) . A few years ago, a study was done by the Book Industry Study Group and Green Press Initiative of the environmental impact of the book industry: http://www.ecolibris.net/book_industry_footprint.asp http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/...ds_summary.pdf Key facts as of 2006/2007 include: • US book industry alone uses 1.5 million metric tons of paper • More than 1 billion books were unsold in the US in 2006. Looks like some of that is recycled, most goes to landfills • 70% or more of the paper used by the book industry is NOT from tree farms, but is from forests • Even re-seeding an existing forest is not a good thing, as you're still destroying the biodiversity of that environment • Only around 15% or so of paper used by the book industry is recycled (that number is slowly increasing though) Also, the Cleantech group did an impact study on the Kindle, and they believe that a Kindle's carbon footprint is the equivalent of roughly 23 books ( http://cleantech.com/news/4867/clean...-positive-envi ). Now, I agree that ebook readers are not a "free lunch" and the above doesn't address all of the aforementioned issues (e.g. heavy metals, improper disposal of electronics). Ergo, you should be mindful of your impact, especially when disposing of gadgets (of all types). But he also seems to overlook the lack of recycling by the book industry and the energy used to create, inventory and deliver paper books -- most of which wind up as just surplus inventory. So if you have an ebook reader, use it a handful of times, and toss it away, then I concur there's no advantage. But I'm fairly confident that the environmental impact, particularly the carbon footprint, of the book biz will drop as ebooks become a larger percentage of the business.