Green is Good!

[QuantumIguana]

Does anyone know what percentage of the paper produced is used for books?

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Does anyone know what percentage of the paper produced is used for books?

good question. i'd think only a tiny fraction is used for book publishing.

[VaporPunk]

Every year in the United States, over 2 billion books are published, 359 million magazines are published 24 billion newspapers are published.
Source: Purdue Research Foundation and US Environmental Protection
Agency, 1996

Source - That was 15+ years ago. Can only be worse today.

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

Every year in the United States, over 2 billion books are published, 359 million magazines are published 24 billion newspapers are published.
Source: Purdue Research Foundation and US Environmental Protection
Agency, 1996

Source - That was 15+ years ago. Can only be worse today.

Newspaper circulation is down, down, down. For newspapers, daily volume peaked in 1984 at 63,340,000 (source) and was, in 2009 at 46,248,000 (close to where it was in 1945).

Magazine circulation looks mostly flat for decades but trustworthy data is harder to get a handle on. (one source). That surprises me. I thought they would be in dire decline also.

I suppose the real answers come from the output of paper mills but even that is a little skewed because of the post-consumer content. I couldn't be bothered to find data on it.

[musicman2523]

Let us think. Deisel powered tree cutter/stripper...... Deisel powered loader. Deisel tractor and trailer to move the trees. Drive a minimum of 150 miles to huge paper mill................make paper. Ship paper all over the country.
Print books at publishers. Ship books all over the country.
I don't know the process for making ereaders. But I do know what goes on to make paper. I've toured a paper mill. It's an extensive and expensive process with lots of waste and polution. If you like the smell of cooking cabbage 24/7 live in a paper mill town.

[covfam]

Originally Posted by musicman2523

Let us think. Deisel powered tree cutter/stripper...... Deisel powered loader. Deisel tractor and trailer to move the trees. Drive a minimum of 150 miles to huge paper mill................make paper. Ship paper all over the country.
Print books at publishers. Ship books all over the country.
I don't know the process for making ereaders. But I do know what goes on to make paper. I've toured a paper mill. It's an extensive and expensive process with lots of waste and polution. If you like the smell of cooking cabbage 24/7 live in a paper mill town.

Dont forget the 200+ people working at that mill who have families who use up massive ammounts of agricultural & mineral resources for thier food, clothing,housing,transportation,healthcare,enterta inment. people always forget THAT crucial element in manufacturing. the less HUMANS you use equals less electricity used, less water used, less food eaten , less fuel burned, less minerals used,less timber needed.

[avariel]

Originally Posted by covfam

Dont forget the 200+ people working at that mill who have families who use up massive ammounts of agricultural & mineral resources for thier food, clothing,housing,transportation,healthcare,enterta inment. people always forget THAT crucial element in manufacturing. the less HUMANS you use equals less electricity used, less water used, less food eaten , less fuel burned, less minerals used,less timber needed.

Because those people are around regardless if they are working in a particular industry or not.

[QuantumIguana]

E-readers are a good use of plastic and paper books are a good use of paper. Plastic packaging and paper junk mail is wasteful. They get thrown away, but e-readers and paper books get used over and over again.

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Newspaper circulation is down, down, down. For newspapers, daily volume peaked in 1984 at 63,340,000 (source) and was, in 2009 at 46,248,000 (close to where it was in 1945).

Magazine circulation looks mostly flat for decades but trustworthy data is harder to get a handle on. (one source). That surprises me. I thought they would be in dire decline also.

I suppose the real answers come from the output of paper mills but even that is a little skewed because of the post-consumer content. I couldn't be bothered to find data on it.

True about the newspapers. And its hard to find info on the % of paper used for books. I'm still convinced that an e-reader (or even a tablet) is greener in the long run than books, but by how much? Dunno. It obviously depends on how long you use it and how many books you read.

[vernonhaynes]

well, to think about it, technology has its ups and downs... considering power consumptions, a tablet does have its advantages over other form of tech.. yes it does require alot to create a tablet yes.. but so it does more to create other techz... but considering the life cycle of a tablet, the total amount of energy it uses and the number of apps and not to mention the amount of ebooks you can read on that tablet will definitely out weight other gadgets and the old paper printed books... just thinking out loud..

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

Newspaper circulation is down, down, down. For newspapers, daily volume peaked in 1984 at 63,340,000 (source) and was, in 2009 at 46,248,000 (close to where it was in 1945).

Magazine circulation looks mostly flat for decades but trustworthy data is harder to get a handle on. (one source). That surprises me. I thought they would be in dire decline also.

I suppose the real answers come from the output of paper mills but even that is a little skewed because of the post-consumer content. I couldn't be bothered to find data on it.

Just dropped my local newspaper subscription. It's a downward spiral, the subscriptions have dropped, the advertisers have dropped, the size has dropped to almost nothing, it's a self-defeating death spiral.

[Ryvyan]

Green value of pbooks vs ereaders?

Why don't all of us on this world just stop and buy only the minimal of what we need instead of lusting after everything else, and then start using it till it is at the end of its life before a repurchase?

There will always be people who will buy into new technology and propel it forward. To argue about whether pbooks or ereaders are 'greener' is just to comfort ourselves that we are not being wasteful consumers. I'm guilty of it myself.

[Pinecone]

And most trees for paper are grown specifically for pulp use. So they cut, plant, grow, cut, plant, grow. So they are constantly in the high growth phase of the trees' lives, so they are using more CO2 to grow. So pulp wood is good for the environment.

[Ekaros]

It would be interesting if one calculated how much energy is used for each digital book. Start with it on distributors server, cost of running those servers, all the network equipment and their power use. Your own computer if not direct, if direct those network equipment too. Moving bits aren't quite so green if quantity is large. Still books don't need much bandwidth...