Focusing on the Green in Libraries

Want to get that new book? Need some fresh magazines? Grab your library card and go on a free spree says Tainted Green.

According to the Green Press Initiative, it takes around 30 million trees to produce all the books in the U.S. And that’s leaving out all the magazines and newspapers that cycle through the average American home.

While most books bought at the store get a few reads, library materials stay in circulation for years, delving out wisdom to many along the way. Libraries also carry local and national newspapers as well as magazines on a wide variety of topics. If you think you’re green by recycling your New Yorker, think again. By reading the exact same pages at the library, you’ll keep one copy completely out of the system.

With regular visits to the library, you don’t need a Kindle or a Nook either. While a Kindle holds hundreds of titles, each aisle of the library holds thousands.

Another nice feature of libraries is they don’t just cater to whatever happens to be popular at a given time, or what’s most likely to sell. That makes library collections much better resources for a wide breadth of knowledge and topics, although you may have to wait a few weeks to read the Twilight series books.