Are E-Readers Greener Than Books?
By Joe Hutsko, Energy and the Environment blog publisher
August 31, 2009
Environmental Science: Environmental Impact
August 31, 2009
Environmental Science: Environmental Impact
Summary: This article is about if e-books make an impact on the environment. Studies show that people who are e-readers improve the environmental impact on one of the worlds most polluting sectors, the publishing industry. The amount of trees it takes to make books shows how big the carbon footprint is. Some reports say that one of the highest carbon footprint are printed books. These books require printing, raw material, paper production, shipping, and disposal in the publishing sector. It isn't just chopping down trees, it's also how far it takes to deliver to each bookstore burning fossil fuels. 25-36% of those books are then returned to the publisher burning even more fossil fuels. Emma Ritch states that "publishers then incinerates, throws away or recycles them." As of right now e-books don't have an impact on the environment since publishers still tend to print books. Cleantech study showed that buying 3 e-books per month for 4 years produces 168 kg of CO2 compared to the same amount of printed books producing 1,074 kg of CO2. Although international campaign coordinator Casey Harrell says that e-readers remain something of an unknown variable. He doesn't know what chemicals are in or out, but he also recommends those concerned about the environment should go to a public library.
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Reflection: I chose this article because in my opinion I think that choosing to read on an e-book, kindle, or ipad will result in a major environmental impact.Trees are one of the natural resources we use the most, especially for paper. Books don't just require trees to be made, they also require printing, other raw materials, shipping and disposal. Making thousands of books isn't the only thing that's bad for the environment, but how much fossil fuels we burn just to deliver them back and forth everyday. It's hard to believe that we throw out most books after we're done, or just leave them on shelves for many years to pass by, other than recycling them. With e-books we can reduce the amount of CO2 we produce every year. It's 2013, I expect to see more people reading on e-books, kindles, and ipads rather than a book with hundreds of pages. Reading on those could save so many books that don't even need to be produced. Even though it probably takes a lot more to create an e-book, I still think it's better to read as much books as you want on there rather than constantly purchasing a book in a store.
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