According to a report published Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry the publishing industry emits a total of 12.4 million tons of carbon dixiode a year or about 8.85 lbs per book. The report identifies the cutting of trees as the largets contributor to that total, but stated that the use of recycled paper and fibers is increasing.
With this is mind I stumbled across another posting that helped to remind me all of the steps that go into the publishing of a book. I found it interesting and I thought I would share it. What I continue to be impressed by is the sheer volume of books that donors are able to donate or buy used to cut down some of this cycle.
“Here is a partial list of steps in creating a paper book, or magazine, which might help us begin to count the system costs of paper publishing.
1.) A work crew drives to the woods, cuts trees and hauls them to a paper mill.
2.) Mill workers arrive, paper mill does its industrial process and trucks the paper to a printer.
2.1) Ink manufacturing workers go to work. Pigment arrives from process X, other chemicals from process Y. Ink manufacturer does its industrial process and trucks ink to warehouse, then to the printer.
3.) Publisher gets paper and ink. Press operators drive to work and run a press, machinery hauls partly assembled groups of paper, binding and trimming and first level warehousing 1,000 t0 5 million items, aka (print run).
4.) Trucks haul the books to distributors’ warehouses. Libraries, bookstores, order books from the publisher or a wholesale jobber, who messages the warehouse, who in turn pull, box and ship the order.
5.1)If it is an online bookstore, they put one or two books in a cardboard box and mail it to a home or office. (skip to step 6)
5.2) Customers get into their favorite transport and physically go to a library or bookstore, perhaps don’t find what they want and proceed to another, or set up a special request, and repeat (5.2) when their title arrives.
5.2) Customers go to a library or retail store and pick up a book or magazine as a side element of some other errand.
5.3) Not finding their desired title, they give up the information quest and the whole trip to bookstore or library is a complete waste of energy. Literally. Or they accept a weak substitute–horrors a new unknown author–.
Primary user is through with the item.
6.) Reuse–books are shared with family or friends, sold to used booksellers, donated to libraries for book sales, or recycled.
6.1) Reuse–library client drives back to the library to return the book, drives home. Libraries check books in and out. But how many times? Most modern published books are rather flimsy. Max number or checkouts-100 times for hardbacks with good bindings and quality paper, to as few as 5 to 10 times for a paperback, perhaps that number for magazines.–at which time the book or magazine falls apart simply due to handling and is recycled or in a few cases, rebound.
7.) Recycling or out to a landfill.”
From BiblioRati
The concept is simple, the more you recycle the more RecycleBank rewards you receive.� The rewards points are than cashed in for gift cards or discounts at over 250 retailers.
– Erin
