Between the years of 2004 and 2010, the amount of recycled paper used in books has grown from 5 percent to 24 percent. That is an increase of almost 5 times the original amount!
- This data is from a report by the Book Industry Environmental Council (BIEC) and Green Press Initiative.
- This same report, which comes from freely given information from the book industry, discovered that 89 percent of book publishers have environmental policies in place. That is nearly all of them!
- In the past few years, groups such as the Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace have been angry with the book industry. This is because some publishers have been linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia.
- Rainforests are very special places with thousands of different types of plants and animals, with many kinds that haven’t even been discovered yet. It is very important to protect these places, not only because of all the special things that live there, but also because within the rainforests may be hidden some secret cures to diseases that exist in the world today.
- It is thought that many top publishing companies established their environmental and sustainability policies because of the publishers caught participating in these activities
- Because of these policies being put into place, 5.25 million trees were saved and greenhouse gas emission was reduced by 1.02 million metric tons.
Want to learn more? Read the full story: U.S. book industry using 24 percent recycled paper on average
