Hmm, the jury is still out on that subject, but this blog post does point out an interesting statistic: for every five books that men read, women read nine.
After discussing the multiple considerations and the pros and cons of both delivery methods (e-books & paper), the author David Turnbull, an environmental law student, concludes this:
the only strong conclusion that can be gathered is that traditional print is the greenest option available today. The established consumer base, sustainable forested supply of paper, and paper recycling programs allow book purchases to be the greener option. However, in the near future, eReaders will in fact become more sustainable through the course of their lifecycle, eBooks will be much cheaper to purchase, and their lifecycle will be much longer. Perhaps we will have to wait until the distant future to find out the verdict once eReaders have achieved hegemony over old-fashioned print.
Read more: http://greenanswers.com/blog/244280/are-ereaders-environmentally-friendly#ixzz1QhN0msWD
Once again, I call bullshit
http://ooligan.pdx.edu/?page_id=3047
We’ll get the future we want. Paper and ink will kick ereaders’ ass on the sustainability front any day of the week.
Both
Could be said that e-books are especially bad as they not only mean you buy more ebooks but for some people, they will also more more paper books are you are reawakening their love of reading.
recycling books
Just because you can recycle paper does not mean it is easy to recycle books. Try to get rid of a box of hardcover books by recycling them. In my city I can not put hardcovers in the recycle bin. I have looked and have not found a place that recycles.
Think you are recycling by taking your books to half price books? They throw most of the books in a dumpster to go to the landfill. If you are big on filling th landfill hardcovers are great.
Gas
My library is to far too walk to. One gallon of gas for round trip to the library. One gallon of gas for every library book I read. Kindle pulls books across a wireless network that is already established. All the books in the bookstore were shipped on diesel and gasoline burning trucks. The workers at the library and bookstore have to drive to work each day. How about we look at the full and complete footprint of paper books.