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Contributed by Jim Elliott
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Sunday, 23 March 2008 |
Buy a book, plant a tree. It is that simple. For the very small price of $1 you can purchase and plant a tree to replace the tree that was used to make the book that you have purchased. The organization that is doing this is Eco Libris (www.ecolibris.net). Their actions and others around the world are trying to compensate for the continued demands for virgin pulp in books printed today. In the United States, about 5% of the paper is recycled content. Some companies like Random House are taking a stand and committing to bringing the content up to 30%.
So what does recycling paper do? It reduces the amount of materials
going to our landfills and garbage dumps. It rightfully reduces the
amount of trees cut down to supply our wasteful use of paper. When you
recycle paper, the use of water and energy goes down dramatically. It
generally takes 30% less energy to produce the same amount of paper
from recycled paper. Through the marketplace, the demand for recycling
of paper will go up and perhaps the price of waste paper. This will
drive the demand at your local recycling dropoff and make it more
profitable to recycle.
So what can we do? Firstly, as much as possible use 100% recycled
paper in your home and business. Double side or reuse paper as much as
possible. Don't be wasteful of your use of paper. Remember that the
computer was to be the producer of a paperless society. Try to live up
to that ideal and not print off as much as you can.
Talk to your local bookstore. Ask if they are a partner of Eco
Libris. Ask about whether they want more information and come informed
about the organization yourself. Look for recycled paper content in
the books and magazines that you purchase and ask the bookstore about
it if you can't see a label to tell you how much an individual magazine
or book has for content. Frequent and support used book sales or the
sharing of books. Every book that is resold or passed on is one that
is not replaced with a new book. If the person that is giving you the
book doesn't want to be paid for it, ask them if you can donate a $1
per book in their name to help in planting trees around the world.
Most will be grateful and appreciative in what you are doing.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 24 March 2008 )
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