where do books come from?

There is a very interesting article on PlanetSave about the number of trees it takes to make all the books that are published in a year… 30 MILLION TREES!!!

You can go here to read the article.

So this is what I want to say about this. I think it is better to reuse than to recycle. Don’t get me wrong, recycle, recycle, recycle. But know that when you recycle, the whole can or the whole paper or the whole book or the whole plastic cup is not getting 100% recycled. There is waste. And, each and every day, we are consuming more and more. This means that what we make from recycling is actually less than we currently use, so more must be made to account for what we will consume. Does this make sense? I’m sure it does… you’re all smart.

Reusing, however, re-uses 100% of that item. There is no waste biproduct, there is no additional resource usage, nothing more is added to this environment. So, Re-use is always better than re-cycle.

OK. There are exceptions. Don’t re-use plastic water bottles, too many toxins. But, you don’t even have to buy the plastic water bottle in the first place… buy a SIGG. And, don’t re-use the obvious, like prophylactics, or syringes… that’s not only bad, it’s disgusting… those you should recycle. I’m in a weird area right now and think it is best to move on.

So… some great ways to reduce your footprint when it comes to books:
BookCrossing, or buy a Kindle, or the good old fashion library, which is my reading method of choice!