E-readers and their impact on the environment

The theory that ebook readers are en eco-friendly alternative to paper books has been creating some debate. According to a recent study, the carbon footprint of a paper book is 7.5 kg of CO2. Only in the US 120 million trees are cut every year to obtain paper for books, magazines and newspapers. That makes it pretty obvious how you can save the planet by choosing ebooks over the printed word.

Some environmentalists however claim that e-readers cannot represent a much “greener” alternative to printed books because of all the energy and plastics that are used to build these devices.

In order to make an accurate observation regarding the impact of both paper book and e-readers on the environment you must take into consideration such factors as raw materials, energy consumption, waste disposal, water and air pollution. Solid waste, packaging and ink are also important for a complete study.

While we cannot deny the environmental impact of an e-book reader, results show that carbon emissions from electronic readers are four times lower than those created by a paper book. Also, e-books need 78 times less water consumption and 3 times less raw material than print books. It seems that using an ebook reader for four years while reading three books per month is likely to save over a ton of carbon dioxide compared to reading the same number of printed books over the same period of time.

Now we know for sure that reading electronically is greener than reading on print.