Waste, Emissions, and Pollution
On our Book Alternatives page, we explore various options beyond purchasing brand-new paperback books. As part of this, we’ve delved into the environmental impact of these alternatives, providing you with the information you need to make a choice that best suits you.
Our aim is not to discourage any particular option—we recognize that every product has some level of environmental impact. Instead, we want to share insights into these effects, empowering you to learn, reflect, and engage with our campaign in a way that feels right for you.
Ultimately, our mission is to raise awareness and inspire sustainable thinking!
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Carbon emissions produced by the distribution sector include various stages of transportation that need to be considered for any reading product.
The transportation sector is one of the greatest contributors to global warming due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and general air pollution. It accounts for 23% of global energy-related GHG emissions.
These figures include road, rail, air, and sea, with 70% of direct transport emissions coming from road vehicles. Followed by aviation (12%), shipping (11%), and rail (1%).
It is important to consider that emissions are not only produced by exhaust gases during transportation but also by infrastructure construction, maintenance, manufacturing of vehicles (lorries, cars, aeroplanes, ships), disposal and operation.
For the past two decades, global CO2 emissions have drastically increased with a growth rate of 46.4% and are estimated to grow within the 16-50% range by 2050.
Source used for Information:
https://www.proquest.com/openview/165f1ce204ef3f91d56c500d6cf42e0f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
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The life cycle of a physical book includes paper production (growing raw materials or using recycled raw materials, printing, binding, distribution (transport to bookstores and/or end users) and disposal (recycling or disposal).
Paper production includes processes such as extracting wood and other raw materials, the use of logging machines, and the transportation of raw materials to paper mills.
During the paper pulp production process, wood chips are cooked and washed to produce white and dry paper pulp. These are all energy-intensive processes and require the use of fossil fuels.
Depending on the type of paper, carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions vary between 0.9 and 1.5kg CO2-eq per kilogram. Recycled paper produces fewer emissions but is still energy-intensive to process and reuse.
This figure doesn’t include the additional emissions produced during the printing process, which are approximately 1-2kg of CO2-eq.
For perspective, one book generates an average of 1.2 kg of CO2-eq, which is the equivalent of driving a car 4.5 miles (Dowd-Hinkle, P. 7, 2012).
However, the largest pollutant in the bindery sector is paper sheet residuals.
Paper sheet residuals are excess paper accumulated during the page trimming process, which comes from poor waste management and excess materials.
Sources used for Information:
https://www.grid.uns.ac.rs/symposium/download/2024/70.pdf
https://www.grid.uns.ac.rs/symposium/download/2022/69.pdf
https://www.proquest.com/openview/165f1ce204ef3f91d56c500d6cf42e0f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
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The main material that book designers use is paper, which is problematic as the paper industry is the 3rd biggest polluter in the world.
Nowadays, unfavourable pulping processes are slowly being replaced by more sustainable ones, which include the reduction of energy and water usage, and show reduced carbon footprints.
These processes use recycled consumed papers, in which virgin cellulose fibres are added, which makes the paper more flexible and durable.
However, due to paperback books being printed in large numbers to reduce the cost of production and meet high demand, sustainable materials are less commonly used. Especially as these practices are currently expensive to source and are inefficient, so they won’t align with tight production deadlines.
Source used for Information:
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Although more sustainable practices are being implemented in the pulp and paper industry, this sector still generates a substantial volume of wastewater through extensive water consumption during the production process.
This wastewater contains a variety of pollutants, including lignin, cellulose and various chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, chlorine, and hydrogen peroxide.
These pollutants can be harmful to human health and the environment when left untreated and discharged into natural water bodies.
The industry is working towards implementing activated carbon absorbents, which are eco-friendly and an economical solution to wastewater treatment challenges.
Although these treatments are becoming increasingly more effective in absorbing heavy metals, organic compounds and dyes, they are expensive and inefficient, so implementing them across the entire pulp and paper sector is a challenge in itself (Badawi et al., 2024).
Source used for Information:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1944398624003643
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On average, only 5% of the paper used in books is recycled, and 40% of all the trees harvested for industrial uses are used for paper alone.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that around 320 million books get dumped in landfills yearly, with only 33.3% being recovered for recycling or other purposes.
EPA also indicates that if 1 tonne of recycled paper were reused for new books, we could save (per tonne of recycled paper):
17 trees
6000 kilowatts of energy
7000 gallons of water.
All from reusing materials we already had available!
Waste reduction is vital to lowering the environmental impact of paper, as decomposing paper gives off the greenhouse gas methane, which is 23 times more potent than CO2.
Sources used for Information:
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Electronic waste (e-waste) is a rapidly developing environmental problem, with 70% of reported toxic and hazardous chemicals in the environment today coming from e-waste.
The main contributing factors are low recycling and improper disposal of old electronics, and continuous upgrading to new electronic products.
Electronic waste accumulates almost 3 times faster than any other waste, with developed countries resolving most of their electronic waste issues by exporting their waste to developing countries. However, most of these underdeveloped countries adopt unsustainable recycling practices that harm workers and the environment.
This demonstrates the increasing pressure to manage electronic waste sustainably in both developed and developing countries, as the negative environmental impacts are only increasing with the introduction of new technology.
Source used for Information:
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Most adhesives used are non-recyclable as they are elastic and major pollutants due to the volatile organic compounds (VOC emissions) that are emitted as gases during the application process.
There are new strategies that include the use of eco-friendly and non-toxic adhesives, but these are more commonly used for print-on-demand books, which is less common for large publishing houses that bulk print their books.
Sources used for Information:
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/what-are-volatile-organic-compounds-vocs
