Is Book Buying Harmful? — A Closer Inspection of the Negative Effects of our Reading Habits
As booklovers know, there is little joy that compares to cracking open a new book. Avid readers might spend an hour or two lost in a bookstore comparing different editions, covers, and prices, before settling on the one (or many). Enveloped in the fresh woody scent of the pages and lost in the magic of its story, it’s easy to see book buying as nothing but good. But in a time where the depletion of the earth’s natural resources cannot be ignored, we must ask, is book buying a reckless demonstration of unsustainability?
It’s estimated that in the US alone, 16 million tons of paper are used by the book publishing year per year, with 20 trees yielding only one ton of paper. This emits over 40 million metric tons of CO2, the equivalent to 7.3 million cars. As the number of published books per year continues to grow, so too do the level of emissions.
This is further fuelled by the rise of self-publishing, with an identified a 375% increase in self-published books between the years of 2010-2016. Despite the boost in supply, the demand for print books are still on a decline, resulting in an oversaturation of the marketplace and excess waste in the form of unsold copies.
Mass-market editions in fact, are stripped of their covers by booksellers, which are used to get a refund from the publisher. E-readers like the Kindle were introduced in the early 2000’s as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to combat the waste caused by print, and have long been considered as such.
However, a closer inspection of the production of e-readers suggests that it is also a major contributor of pollution, though of a different kind.
An analysis by the Cleantech Group finds that there is up to 26,098kg of CO2 emitted by e-Readers such as the Kindle DX. This is largely due to the complex batteries and screens required to run the product, which are developed used non-renewable materials such as lithium and columbine-tantalite. It’s been generally concluded that for e-readers to truly be an environmentally beneficial alternative, users must purchase more than 23 books per year in order to neutralise the emissions of the e-reader.
Beyond sustainability, ethical questions also arise when considering the mass consumption of print books. Major retailers such as Amazon, Book Depository, AbeBooks, and Audible, have been singled out as companies whose cheaper prices are not only suggestive of unethical operations (like a poor tax record and abuse of workers’ rights), but are also detrimentally affecting the publishing industry.
Author Jaime Clarke even went so far as creating a website, pleasedontbuymybookonamazon.com, to deter readers from using the book giant. It should be noted that when a book is listed at a discount price, or coming from a third-party seller such as on Amazon, the author is often receiving very little, or nothing, in royalties.
In addition to this, small bookstores and publishing companies can struggle to meet the competitive prices offered by such larger organisations, which makes it very difficult for them to stay afloat. With all the evidence stacked against book buying, thankfully, it isn’t all bad. In fact, there are still many ways you can go about picking up books without harming the earth, or the people behind it.
What to do:
- Buy from independent book shops and support local businesses
- Seek out second-hand stores, particularly not-for-profit retailers such as charity-run organisations
- Sign up for a library card at your neighbourhood library
- Borrow and lend books with friends
- Get involved with little free libraries, or create one in your community
- Invest in an e-reader, if you are a heavy reader
What not to do:
- Avoid purchasing from giants like Amazon
- Be wary of online stores that sell new books for cheap through third-party sellers
- Avoid purchasing books that don’t feature the FSC logo
You can also seek out book-seller sustainability and ethos ratings at Ethical Consumer below:
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/shopping-guide/booksellers
About Roumina Parsamand
Roumina is a journalism and finance student from Melbourne, Australia. She is a filler of journals with words and drawings, and an obsessive reader. Always happy to chat books, pet dogs, and drink tea. You can find her on Instagram at @nami.reads
