Why I love Kindle? It saves trees!

[zeus]

Why I love my Kindle? It saves trees! E-readers make ecology better. They also save money (e-books cost less) and save space.

I was wondering how many trees does one Kindle save? Any idea?

[DiscoDan]

I'm with you on this one.. it is sad that the print book industry is disappearing, but think about how great it is for the environment. So worth it.

[Nebula7]

What many people seem to forget it that trees actually grow. It's not like the land is bare once the tree is harvested. If there is no use for the planted pine forests of America then they will simply be used for something else. Maybe for oilwells to make more plastic to make more Kindles. I love the Kindle but not because it saves trees. Because it really doesn't.

[DiscoDan]

I have heard that the trees used to make paper are actually perfect for harvesting because they grow quick and would naturally die after 10 years (or something) from diseases anyway.  But I forget who my source was, maybe that's not true.  Anyway I think the issue is that the demand for paper is so high they're forced to start chopping up rainforests to get their wood.  Less need for paper would sustain the need at a better level.

And the plastic theory isn't really comparable.  The little plastic it takes to make a Kindle is nothing compared to the amount of paper used to make 200+ books.

[Ann in Arlington]

In the US at least half of most paper us made from recycled materials.  Sawmill waste is also used, which is just another sort of recycling.  There are also trees that are planted specifically to be harvested for paper.  Much like corn or wheat which are harvested for food.

Deforestation is mostly because people want space for farmland or housing.  And not all wood is ideal for paper -- many of the exotic woods of the rain forest are too hard for paper production, but they're often highly prized for woodworkers and furniture makers.  And they make good firewood,

[patrickt]

I've got my list of reasons I like my Kindle. Let's see, oh, right, number one is I can buy books in English when I'm in a non-English-speaking country. Let me, see, here, okay, here's number 32: I can carry two or three books with me conveniently so if I finish one book I can start another. Okay, okay, here, number 104: I can increase the font size when the light is less than perfect. Going way down, okay, number 256: If I need to go somewhere and am right at the end of the book I can have the Kindle read it to me while I drive if I choose. Ah, okay, hwere we go. Reason 362: It might save a tree somewhere, sometime, maybe.

My first job was in a box plant. It didn't last long because when I told them I wouldn't join the union I got fired. But, our trees came from the tree farm. When it was time to cut the trees it was pretty orderly. They were growing in straight lines on level, if not flat, land. Not surprisingly, all the trees were the same size, the same shape, and had very frew limbs. Cutting the limbs and feeding them into the barking drums wasn't too bad. Now, if every tree had been a different size and shape, good luck. After the entire process the cardboard box that your computer came in was produced. Oh, a few months after I was fired the union called a strike, the company closed the plant and moved. The trees are still growing, though.

[unitbit]

My wife and I were at Borders last night, one that was going out of business, and it was very strange to think how we have our books on our Kindle when they are trying so hard to sell the paper copies now.  It was slightly sad if you think about it, not that I'm complaining, I love the Kindle.  But to think how the digital world is now replacing the way it all started.  Just crazy to think about.

[Shadonna]

Why I love my Kindle? It saves trees! E-readers make ecology better. They also save money (e-books cost less) and save space.

I was wondering how many trees does one Kindle save? Any idea?

I am so with you on this one. I'm all for saving the environment. I'll bet thousands of trees are saved every year thanks to the invention of the Kindle. Nowadays, the books I purchase are mostly digital (and uploaded onto my Kindle device, of course).   

[KingAl]

Why I love my Kindle? It saves trees! E-readers make ecology better. They also save money (e-books cost less) and save space.

I was wondering how many trees does one Kindle save? Any idea?

Actually, the Kindle does not make ecology better unless you buy a lot of books. There was a study that concluded that buying a Kindle + ebooks is less green than buying paper books unless you have purchased something like 80 ebooks (that you would have otherwise purchased in paper form.)

Thanks to the Agency Model, ebooks are often not much cheaper than the paper book (and sometimes Amazon discounts the paper book so much that it is cheaper than the ebook.) Also, if you are willing to buy used books, those are usually much cheaper than the ebook.

[Me and My Kindle]

There was a study that concluded that buying a Kindle + ebooks is less green than buying paper books unless you have purchased something like 80 ebooks

But there were also other studies.  Here's an article from December where a British environmental correspondent tried to sort through them all.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/geoffrey-lean/8234044/How-many-e-books-to-spare-a-tree.html

"One reckoned that you would have to get through 40 electronically each year to come out ahead, another made that 23, while a third concluded that the carbon produced in making each e-reader would be recovered by the trees it left standing in just 12 months."

[Badandy]

Trees can be planted and regrown, books use recycled paper, and the amount of carbon that goes into making the Kindle and supporting Amazon's server farms dedicated to Kindles doesn't make it so green.  Love the Kindle because it's so convenient to read, not because it makes you feel like you're Captain Planet.

This sounds kind of like people who replace perfectly functioning cars with Prius' and tell their friends how green they are.

[KingAl]

But there were also other studies.  Here's an article from December where a British environmental correspondent tried to sort through them all.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/geoffrey-lean/8234044/How-many-e-books-to-spare-a-tree.html

"One reckoned that you would have to get through 40 electronically each year to come out ahead, another made that 23, while a third concluded that the carbon produced in making each e-reader would be recovered by the trees it left standing in just 12 months."

Interesting. In any case, you have to buy lots of ebooks to break even. I suspect that the "average" ebook reader takes longer than a year to buy 23 ebooks, let alone 40.

[QuantumIguana]

A study on the environmental impact of the Kindle: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/sustainability-answers/The%20environmental%20impact%20of%20the%20Amazon%20Kindle.pdf

There are also pollution, energy and water consumption issues associated with paper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_with_paper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_pollution

[mooshie78]

Another key thing to factor in is that it's very important that electronics be recycled properly when they break or are no longer wanted.  They can do a lot of harm if thrown in a land fill as they take ages to biodegrade, some have harmful metals, the chemicals in the rechargeable batteries etc.

That's not necessarily a negative of the tech, just that people need to be aware of these things and make the effort to properly recycle old gadgets, rechargeable batteries etc.

[Franklin Eddy]

On the down side, a lot of people will lose their jobs as the demand for paper decreases.  Jobs associated with printing books will go away.  As libraries and book stories decrease in size, there will be less need for employees so there go more jobs. So there are also bad things as well as good things due to the Kindle and other reading devices.

One of the biggest problem with this country's economy is that a lot of jobs are going away.  At first they went overseas, but they will soon come back since it is cheaper to make products here than ship them overseas.  However, when the manufacturing does come back, the products will probably be made in automated factors, rather than by workers.

There are no real easy solutions to technology changes affecting jobs.

[Adam Pepper]

This discussion has thoroughly confused me as to the environmental impact, but at least I know I still love my Kindle! 

[hakimast]

Trees are always nice 

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

LOLOLOLOL about the deforestation concerns (the land will be used for something else!) In good part, today's paper products come from fast growing trees planted in flood zones....like poplars. It's an excellent use of floodplain land...it's recycled agricultural land (the flooding makes the soil very rich and the poplars, which love water, grow even faster.

As for the environmental impacts...um, our K's are made up of a ton of petroleum products  , not to mention the hazardous materials in the batteries.

IMO, the only saving grace (environmentally) for K's is the energy saved in distribution.

9MMare....the ex-park ranger

[hakimast]

You sure it's petroleum plastic? I was pretty sure that was tougher

[QuantumIguana]

No, the Kindle is not made from tons of plastic. As a matter of fact, the Kindle is made from a few ounces of plastic. The Kindle 3 Wi-Fi weighs 8.5 ounces, which comes to less than three ten-thousandths of a ton. It has at much plastic as perhaps 4 or 5 20 oz soda bottles. And unlike the soda bottles which are used once and thrown away, the Kindle is used for quite some time.

[Hadou]

Yay trees.

[Jan Strnad]

I'd love to have a Kindle with a bamboo case.

[balaspa]

Whenever I was forced to make a ton of copies or print out a huge amount of pages of something at work, inevitably someone would come around and say, "Are you killing trees here?"  I would always reply, "If it's in paper form, the tree is already dead.  I am just giving its death a purpose."

[Diane Darcy]

I used to put out magazines and books in three stores. I remember thinking what a huge waste the whole thing was. I'd get a full shopping cart of books every week and I'd dispose of the the old ones. Almost every single book would still be there. So every week it was just swapping out. It got to the point that I just viewed the whole thing as ridiculous. I was told they credited returns, ripped the covers off and recycled. And started the whole process over again. From that point of view, Kindle just makes so much sense. 

[tom st. laurent]

I'd love to have a Kindle with a bamboo case.

That sounds great. I'd love that. But then, you might be attacked by bamboo huggers, because it might be bad for pandas.