If you’re like us in the Lady Literacy Book Club, you sometimes gaze around at the many books lying around your house, each made of hundreds of pages worth of a precious natural resource, combined with potentially harmful inks and glue, manufactured and shipped around the world guzzling fossil fuels along the way, to eventually end up on your coffee table. Suddenly, the carbon footprint on reading is stacking up higher than that pile of TBR's in the corner.
While it’s true that the book publishing industry negatively affects the environment, today we’re going to look at a few ways to help reduce that impact and we might even have some fun at the same time! So, without further ado, here are tips to help promote reading sustainably.
Book Procurement:
There are many ways in which a book can come into your possession. At the top of many articles encouraging readers to be environmentally friendly, reading e-books and listening to audiobooks is often found. By purchasing or renting your books on an electronic device, it certainly eliminates much of the pollution and waste involved in transporting the title but also of printing and binding it. As e-readers specifically have their own environmental shortcomings (limited shelf-life, electricity usage, etc.), reading on a device that has other purposes such as a personal computer or phone is the most environmentally-conscious choice. At Lady Literacy, many of us prefer to hold a copy in ours hands and smell that familiar scent. In this case, another option might be renting a book from your local library or borrowing one from a friend instead of buying a brand new copy. This extends the life of the book and also gives you a great chance to try something new, knowing it will be returned at no cost. Finally, sometimes adding a book to your permanent collection is what you need and in that case, searching for used bookstores and thrift stores in your area is the greener choice. In fact, used books can even be ordered online at retailers like Thriftbooks. This allows you to own a physical copy of the title of your choice, but also give the book a new life at a lower cost to you.
Book Disposal:
For our purposes here, let’s assume you have all the paper books you own in front of you. You should treat disposing of each book separately, considering which of the following options are best for each. Of course, the easiest option is to keep them! Lining walls with bookshelves helps to keep your home better insulated and soundproofed which in turn makes your living space more energy efficient. Reading paper books also uses no electricity, unlike watching TV, playing video games, or spending time on electronics. If you’ve decided you no longer want a book, there are a few ways you can offload it while paying mind to the environmental implications. For example, you can participate on the other side of some of the options in the procurement section such as donating books to local libraries and thrift stores so someone else can find enjoyment out of it. Prisons and schools are also entities that are typically in need of donated printed materials. Depending on the quality and condition of your books, you may even be able to sell them and make an extra couple dollars. Lastly, for the books that aren't in a state where they cannot be reused, look for ways to recycle or repurpose your old books. Here is a list of just a few DIY projects you might use your old books for:
Make art or house décor using book covers and pages
Remove pages and do black out poetry
Cut out a secret compartment
Turn pages into handmade stationery such as envelopes
Use as gift wrap or gift tags
The tips above do not include every option for making your personal reading more sustainable. In fact, here are a few more that don’t necessarily relate to procurement or disposal.
Start a Little Free Library! Check out this link to learn more about the non-profit and how you can build a take-one-leave-one style mini library of your own!
Host an 'event’ dedicated to book trading where you and your friends get together and swap books.
Read books that discuss the climate crisis and ways we can combat it. It is important to educate ourselves and be aware of the consequences of our actions so that we can work in unison to save the planet.
Thank you for reading! Follow along with us the rest of the month for more tips and tricks for promoting a more sustainable and eco-friendly life!
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