What Happens to Books When They Die?
6 06 2008Who said literature and knowledge were eternal?
As I mentioned in a previous post about the environmental impacts of the publishing industry , the archaic return policies of the book industry lead to millions of books being pulped or landfilled every year.
According to Bloombergnews.com, “In 2005, roughly 1.5 billion books were shipped in the U.S. … Of those, 465 million, or 31 percent, were returned to publishers.” That’s a whole lotta not only paper waste, but carbon emissions!
So what happens to these books after they die? Joe Moran of the Guardian says, pulped books can be turned into “bitumen modifier, the pellets roadbuilders use to bind blacktop to aggregate. A mile of motorway consumes about 45,000 books” and also fake snow…weird, huh?
Hi, im agree with u because now a days the paper is wasted very much because of manufacuring of books and it has a very bad effect on enviornment, thanks a lot.
true dat, eve. that’s why i think we need to collectively rediscover the resource of our libraries (something I always forget about), as well as used book stores.
That is pretty strange. It is really sad that so many books are still being bought and most of it is due to schools and universities. As a computer science major, many of my professors now only use online resources and have moved away from making us buy books. Not only does it save some trees, but it’s far cheaper