Have you ever considered what the carbon footprint of hardcover books might be, or if printing books contributes has an impact on the planet?
Books are crucial for distributing information, and the wonderful thing about them is that they can’t all be changed instantly.
For example, have you ever searched for an article online that you read, but now seems like it’s gone forever?
Hardcover books eliminate that problem.
Yet, what’s the carbon footprint of hardcover books?
This guide outlines the impact of printing hardcover books in relation to ebooks, audiobooks and other printed materials.
What Is a Carbon Footprint?
So, what is a carbon footprint exactly? It’s a term that is thrown around a lot, and because many people believe it just relates to carbon dioxide there is a lack of understanding of how involved it can be.
A carbon footprint is the measurement of an individual’s or corporation’s impact on the environment.1
A carbon footprint is the measurement of how much a certain material or process gives off carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, methane, and sulfur hexafluoride.2 To keep it simple for measurement, a carbon footprint is measured as CO2e, or carbon dioxide equivalent,3 so we use carbon dioxide and its warming potential as a standard.
How To Measure an Item’s Carbon Footprint
Carbon footprint calculation of any particular item or person can be difficult since there are so many steps and processes that go into creating a product. Not only that, but depending on where the materials come from and how they’re transported can affect the calculation.
Different countries, states, municipalities, and corporations have varying standards and processes, which makes carbon footprint calculation difficult.
Carbon Footprint of Hardcover Books: What Is the Carbon Footprint of Manufacturing Books?
On average the carbon footprint of a paper book is 2.7kg of CO2e.4 To give you a comparison, that is the equivalent of driving about 6.7 miles in a car.5
As mentioned earlier, an item’s carbon footprint is determined by multiple factors including the material it’s made from, how that material is processed, and where it’s coming from. A book is made of paper and ink, which have their own processes.
Then you have to take into consideration the transportation of those materials as well as the printing and assembling of the book, the transportation of the book to the bookstore or warehouse, AND THEN the journey to your home if you order it online and get it delivered. The specific footprint of a book is also determined by its size and weight.
Paper
The largest component in the carbon footprint of publishing is the carbon footprint of paper. About 75% of the publishing industry’s carbon footprint comes from the paper itself.6
This includes the actual harvesting and processing of the wood into the paper.
It isn’t only the processing of the paper, but also the forest carbon loss that needs to be taken into account. Taking trees from the forest not only requires energy, but it also cuts out the amount of carbon that can be recycled through a tree’s natural photosynthetic processes.
(Image: Ruben Hanssen26)
It’s important to understand that there is no way to make the production of paper a completely carbon neutral process.7 There are ways to cut down on the footprint by using recycled products or making the processing of paper less consumptive, but at the moment it cannot be neutral.
For printing a book, as well as the paper involved, a book can have a carbon footprint of 250g to 1 kg CO2e.8
Ink and Sustainable Inks
There are various ink types that are used in the printing of books, and printing ink, commonly used for books, requires multiple stages and materials. It’s difficult to narrow down the exact carbon footprint of ink per book, but one of the main materials in ink is petroleum, which can be detrimental for the environment.9
Ink is composed of pigment and dye, and it also requires a vehicle that allows it to get on the page. All three of those materials require their own processing.
A rough estimate of the carbon footprint of ink is that 1lb of ink produces 45–91 g CO2e.10 A book can consist of 10 fl oz of ink, which means the ink on its own can contribute to about
There are more sustainable types of ink that are beginning to gain traction, but keep in mind, ink that you purchase in an ink cartridge is different from ink used to print books. Some inks come in the form of a paste, which requires a specific process during the printing of the book to adhere to the pages.
- Vegetable Inks: These can be made of sources such as corn, linseed, or soy which are all renewable and sustainable. However, these also require agriculture and transportation, which affect the carbon footprint.
- Water-based Inks: These inks do not contain as many solvents, cutting down on certain processes and emissions.
- Algae Ink: This is the most sustainable ink, and helps to sequester carbon from the air, making it a carbon-negative ink.
These inks are more sustainable and better for the environment since they don’t include dangerous chemicals that will affect the environment through processing. These are far from carbon neutral, since all of these still require some degree of harvesting, processing, and transportation.
Transportation
In the age of Amazon and online book stores, it’s very common for people to get their books via delivery. This doesn’t take into account the transportation of raw materials, processed materials, or the shipment of finished books to warehouses or stores.
These numbers are also dependent on the weight of the book, the space it takes up, and the weight of the load that is being transported.
(Image: rosebox25)
The average carbon footprint of a small package (1 pound) that is delivered via ground transportation for 500 miles is 0.59 kg CO2e, while air travel would amount to about 0.98 kg CO2e.11
Consider also the fact that a paperback book, on average, can weigh between 0.5 to 1 lb and a hardcover book can weigh between 1 and 3 lbs.12
This means that the carbon footprint of hardcover books, once it has been manufactured and are transported, can have at least 0.59 kg CO2e more than a paperback. This is also dependent on the eco-friendly nature of the transportation.
Carbon Footprint of Hardcover Books: How To Cut Down on a Book’s Carbon Footprint
Although it’s difficult to create carbon neutral books, it is possible to lower the carbon footprint of hardcover books. This is where you come in.
If you enjoy a particular publisher or notice that certain book companies don’t use sustainable materials, you can reach out to them.
Recommend to your favorite publisher that they use recycled paper, sustainable inks, and transport their materials via sustainable transportation. Even a few small changes are better than none at all.
A business can better understand their impact on the environment by using a carbon footprint calculator. For printing and publishing multiple changes can be made, and we as readers should help the planet by requesting these important changes.
What To Do With Old Books To Reduce the Carbon Footprint
If you need to get rid of some books and don’t know what to do, the important thing is to not throw them out! There are so many options for your old books, including reselling, donating, or recycling them.
Here are some ways to make the most out of your old books which can help in reducing the carbon footprint of hardcover books:
Reselling Books
There are opportunities to make your money back on books that have surpassed their usage by reselling them. There are multiple places to resell your books, including used book stores and various websites.
- Used Book Stores
Stopping by a used book store can allow you to get some money back on your old books, or at the very least will give you back store credit towards your future purchase. This is great to keep your community bookstore going, and helps maintain a diverse selection.
(Image: freddie marriage24)
Also, it doesn’t require that the book be shipped anywhere in order for it to be purchased.
- Websites
There are many websites that are perfect for reselling books, including Ebay, Amazon, Bookscouter, Abebooks, and Thriftbooks. These websites allow you to give your book a second chance and make some money from the comfort of your own home.
Obviously you’ll have to package and ship your books, which is where the problem comes in.
If you do choose to resell your books on one of these websites, you will need to ship them, which slightly defeats the purpose. Shipping requires transportation via ground or air transport, and therefore adds more carbon emissions to your book.
Donating Books
A thrift store or goodwill are great options when you are all done with your books. It’s not hard to find and you can drop off as many as you want.
These books are then sold at a lower price, making them more accessible to others that may not have the money to buy books brand new.
The money from these places can also go back to fund the community or various organizations. It comes at no cost to you, and is a great way to give back.
Take a Book, Share a Book Boxes
One program you may be aware of is the Take a Book, Share a Book program,13 which is currently in 121 countries around the world. This program gives 24/7 access to books by using boxes where you can drop off a book and pick up a new one.
The boxes are small, so they can’t hold a lot of books, but they provide an easy to access and free method for sharing books with the community. You don’t even have to take a book, just leave one that you believe will enrich the people in your community.
You can even start your own library in your neighborhood, or find the one closest to you on their website.14
Recycling Books
Each year, around 320 million books are thrown away.15 This adds to the average carbon footprint of 2.7kg CO2e already attributed to the publishing of books.
Recycling a book reduces its average footprint to 2.46kg CO2e instead of 2.7kg CO2e. It also saves about 60% of the energy it would take to create new paper and 17 trees can be spared by recycling one ton of paper.16
(Image: Ed Robertson27)
This makes recycling the best option when your book has reached the end of its life.
Throwing a book in a landfill adds to a carbon footprint because the process by which it decomposes results in methane gas. Landfills account for about 16% of the methane emissions in the U.S., creating around 122.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to methane gas.17
Pass It Along to a Friend
If you are an avid reader, chances are you have some friends that share the same passion. Once you’re done with a book, recommend it to a friend and pass it along.
Even if you don’t like it, you never know the effect it will have on another person. This also gives you the opportunity to strike up a conversation surrounding the book!
It’s important to recycle books or reuse them in any way since keeping our forests intact helps to create a “carbon sink”, or a place for carbon dioxide to get recycled into gasses that benefit us instead of harm us. In fact, forests consume two times the amount of carbon that they produce.18
In order to keep in that way donating, reselling, and recycling books is your best course of action when you are finished
Where To Get Secondhand Books
So you know how to properly find a new home for your old books, but what about when you are looking for new books to read? There are plenty of ways to gain access to secondhand books in addition to some of the methods listed above.
Book Groups
Finding a group or starting your own book circle will not only help you to build a community of like minded individuals who love reading, but it will also give you the opportunity to trade books with each other. This keeps books in circulation instead of requiring you to buy a new book.
It also gives you a community to discuss books with and prevents the need of shipping or transportation, other than the drive to your friend’s place.
Libraries
Do you remember libraries? They seem to have fallen by the wayside, but they are a powerful resource for finding books. All you need is a library card and you can take out as many books as you want.
The library has been overlooked in this age of Amazon and digital books. Between the years of 2000 and 2018 there was a decline of 31% in the use of the physical library buildings.
(Image: Trnava University28)
People also borrow less books – 19.21% decrease (from 2013 to 2019).19 COVID 19 certainly altered that as well when 99% of libraries were forced to close.
This created a huge boom for independent bookstores, as well as Amazon,20 which increased the number of sales shipped from businesses to home. Remember that shipping is a huge part of the carbon footprint for books, so regardless if they are pre-owned or new there is still a footprint.
The library offers books free of charge, a place to quietly read them, and an opportunity to meet other readers in person in your area.
Which Has the Bigger Footprint, Physical Books, EBooks, or Audio Books?
There is a lot of debate surrounding the benefit of eReaders or eBooks as opposed to physical books, but there are multiple variables involved. Since many eBooks are made of plastic and metal components, part of the issue comes between the carbon footprint of paper vs plastic vs metal.
Once again, these numbers aren’t consistent, and are based on our best guess since so many factors go into the carbon footprint of one single book whether it be a physical book, eBook, or audio book.
Carbon Footprint of EBooks
On average, the carbon footprint of an eBook or eReader is about 168 kg of CO2e.21 This doesn’t include the regular charging of an eBook, which can add on 3.8 kg CO2e a year.22
Benefits of an eBook:
- Books purchased don’t need to be transported, cutting down on vehicle related emissions.
- Takes less energy than reading a book on a PC or laptop.
Negatives of an eBook:
- Processing of an eBook includes other wastes like zinc or arsenic that are not present in the processing of physical books.
- The plastics and metals in eBooks require the mining of materials, which includes the emissions from mining equipment, travel of mining equipment, travel of raw materials, and the processing of raw materials.
- In order for an eBook or eReader to offset the carbon emissions of physical books you need to read more books than the equivalent in . With books having an average carbon footprint of 2.7 kg of CO2e and 168 kg of CO2e for eBooks, you would need to read over 62 books during the lifespan of your eBook, and that is just the base carbon footprint and doesn’t include the chagrin requirements which are varied based on how often you are reading, how long it takes for you to read, and the length of the book.
- An eBook doesn’t last your entire life, and so it may need to be replaced. This means that you may not even get to your 62 book minimum before it needs to be replaced.
- If you think giving a Kindle or eBook is a great gift idea, make sure that the person you give it to will make use of it. About one third of kindles that are gifted aren’t even used by the recipient,23 which can cause eBooks to be a bigger carbon emissions issue since they don’t get the opportunity to offset any emissions.
Carbon Footprint of Audio Books
Audio Books are harder to pin down in terms of their carbon footprint since they are a digital source. Luckily our friends at A Drop in the Ocean did the difficult job of working out the math.
They came up with 0.025 kg of CO2e per audiobook.5
This is obviously a better bet if you are looking to minimize your carbon footprint, however it’s a completely different form of reading books. Some individuals find it difficult to ingest their literature through aural means, and find it necessary to have a physical copy where they can highlight passages or make notes.
At the same time, an audio book is always a great choice since you can listen to it while working out, driving, or going for a walk.
There are also so many avenues to get an audiobook; you can even find plenty of them for free on YouTube. The carbon footprint of hardcover books is more than audiobooks, but which you choose depends on your preferred mode of reading.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Carbon Footprint of Hardcover Books
How Do I Find My Carbon Footprint?
There are various ways to find out what your carbon footprint is, and the best way is a carbon emissions calculator. This is how to calculate carbon footprint manually, although keep in mind, that is not going to be 100% accurate as there are many factors which contribute to a person’s individual carbon footprint.
Which Is Better, Paper Books vs EBooks?
The choice between ebooks and paper books hinges on your reading habits: ebooks become more environmentally sustainable after reading 37 books on a device, making them ideal for avid readers, while infrequent readers may find paper books, especially second-hand or library copies, to be a better option.
Do Hardcover Books Have a Larger Carbon Footprint Than Paperback Books?
This is difficult to quantify for a couple of reasons. Although it takes more material to produce the hardcover of books, a hardcover also protects the book, making the lifespan longer.
Learn More About Carbon Footprint of Hardcover Books
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References
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2Regents of the University of Michigan. (2023). Greenhouse Gases Factsheet. Center for Sustainable Systems. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/climate-change/greenhouse-gases-factsheet>
3Texas A&M Forest Service. (2024). Forest Carbon. Texas A&M Forest Service. Retrieved 28 February, 2024, from <https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/uploadedFiles/TFSMain/Data_and_Analysis/Contact_Us(3)/CarbonMarketsFactsheet.pdf>
4Wells, J.-R., Boucher, J.-F., Laurent, A.-B., & Villeneuve, C. (2012, January 23). Carbon Footprint Assessment of a Paperback Book. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00414.x>
5Jarvis, K. (2023, February 2). Which has a smaller eco-footprint: Physical Books, eBooks, or Audiobooks? A Drop in the Ocean. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://adropintheoceanshop.com/blogs/blog/which-is-more-sustainable-physical-books-ebooks-or-audiobooks>
6Ritch, E. (2009). The environmental impact of Amazon’s Kindle. Cleantech. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from <https://gato-docs.its.txst.edu/jcr:4646e321-9a29-41e5-880d-4c5ffe69e03e/thoughts_ereaders.pdf>
7United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2023, June 26). Monitoring Information By Industry – Printing and Publishing. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.epa.gov/air-emissions-monitoring-knowledge-base/monitoring-information-industry-printing-and-publishing>
8Acciona. (2019). Carbon footprint, which is better? eBooks or traditional books? Acciona. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-life/carbon-footprint-which-is-better-ebooks-or-traditional-books/?_adin=02021864894>
9Ethicool Books. (2024). Bringing sustainability to the publishing industry. Ethicool Books. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://ethicool.com/blogs/journal/sustainable-printing-for-planet?shpxid=6646563c-59b8-4ba5-adbd-7e7d216deccf>
10Duchene, K. (2008, March 12). DETERMINING THE CO2 FOOTPRINT OF A POUND OF INK. Gans Ink. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.gansink.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Memo-CO2-Footprint-of-Ink-for-Web.pdf>
11Consumer Ecology. (2023). Carbon Footprint of Package Shipping & Transport. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://consumerecology.com/carbon-footprint-of-package-shipping-transport/>
12Bookish Hut. (2024). Average Weight Of A Book: Paperback, Hardcover (Storing Tips). Bookish Hut. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://bookishhut.com/average-weight-of-a-book-paperback-hardcover-storing-tips/>
13Little Free Library. (2022). About Us. Little Free Library. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://littlefreelibrary.org/about/>
14Little Free Library. (2022). Little Free Library World Map. Little Free Library. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://littlefreelibrary.org/map/>
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16Avedovech, K. (2022, April 26). Debunking recycling myths. University of Colorado Boulder. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2022/04/26/debunking-recycling-myths>
17United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2023, November 16). Frequent Questions about Landfill Gas. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.epa.gov/lmop/frequent-questions-about-landfill-gas>
18Harris, N., & Gibbs, D. (2021, January 21). Forests Absorb Twice As Much Carbon As They Emit Each Year. World Resources Institute. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.wri.org/insights/forests-absorb-twice-much-carbon-they-emit-each-year>
19Rizzo, N. (2022, February 17). State of US Public Libraries – More popular & digital than ever. Wordsrated. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://wordsrated.com/state-of-us-public-libraries/>
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22Jarvis, K. (2023, February 2). Which has a smaller eco-footprint: Physical Books, eBooks, or Audiobooks? A Drop in the Ocean. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://adropintheoceanshop.com/blogs/blog/which-is-more-sustainable-physical-books-ebooks-or-audiobooks>
23Jellybooks. (2021, October 28). Carbon Footprint of Physical versus Electronic Books – Insights for the Book Trade. Jellybooks. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://www.jellybooks.com/insights/carbon-footprint-review-copies>
24Bookstore Photo by freddie marriage. (2016, May 15) / Unsplash License. Resized and Changed Format. Unsplash. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://unsplash.com/photos/assorted-title-novel-book-lot-w8JiSVyjy-8>
25Person Giving Brown Box Photo by rosebox. (2019, August 24) / Unsplash License. Cropped and added text, shape, and background elements. Unsplash. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://unsplash.com/photos/person-giving-brown-box-BFdSCxmqvYc>
26Tree Log Pile Photo by Ruben Hanssen. (2022, October 3) / Unsplash License. Cropped and Resized. Unsplash. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://unsplash.com/photos/a-stone-staircase-in-a-forest-bLs6AGUEAgo>
27Assorted Title Book Lot Photo by Ed Robertson. (2019, February 17) / Unsplash License. Cropped and Resized. Unsplash. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://unsplash.com/photos/assorted-title-book-lot-FDzRG30DeVM>
28Brown Wooden Book Shelf With Books Photo by Trnava University. (2020, May 4) / Unsplash License. Cropped and Resized. Unsplash. Retrieved February 28, 2024, from <https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-wooden-book-shelf-with-books-BEEyeib-am8>