The Big House Library has begun a beautiful new partnership with BetterWorld Books.
If you're not yet familiar with BetterWorld Books, it's my pleasure to introduce you to a totally new (and better) way to buy books online. They save books from landfills. You save money. And together we all save lives when they reinvest profits into literacy projects worldwide, like building libraries in third-world countries.
To learn more about BetterWorld Books, watch this YouTube video about their love lives with books and their work with literacy and libraries worldwide.
To see how much we helped, just read our environmental metrics report. Recycling our old library books was the best thing we ever did!
If you're not yet familiar with BetterWorld Books, it's my pleasure to introduce you to a totally new (and better) way to buy books online. They save books from landfills. You save money. And together we all save lives when they reinvest profits into literacy projects worldwide, like building libraries in third-world countries.
To learn more about BetterWorld Books, watch this YouTube video about their love lives with books and their work with literacy and libraries worldwide.
To see how much we helped, just read our environmental metrics report. Recycling our old library books was the best thing we ever did!
THE BIG HOUSE LIBRARY'S ENVIRONMENTAL METRICS REPORT FROM BETTER WORLD BOOKS:
EXPLANATION OF DATA VALUES:
RECYCLED BOOKS – Books we deem unsalable and not appropriate for donation to our participating literacy partners. Recycling books is termed waste reduction¹. Our recyclers report that the efficiency of recycling a book yields 97% of that book as usable fiber.
POUNDS OF BOOKS – The average weight of the outbound books that Better World Books has processed is 1.37 pounds. This average weight is multiplied by the number of books categorized as ReUsed. Recycled books are multiplied by the efficiency rating of generating recycled fiber (see Usable Fiber below).
TREES – The number of typical trees assumes a mix of hardwoods and softwoods 6-8inches in diameter and 40feet tall. The number of trees saved per ton of 100% recycled fiber produced is twenty four².
WATER (g) - There are 8,750 gallons of water saved per ton of paper produced when comparing 100% forest fiber sources to 100% postconsumer fiber².
METHANE & GREENHOUSE GASES (lbs) – Landfilling produces .725 pounds of methane per book³. One way of measuring the impact of greenhouse gases is by assigning them a Global Warming Potential (GWP). The concept of a global warming potential (GWP) was developed to compare the ability of each greenhouse gas to trap heat in the atmosphere relative to another gas. The definition of a GWP for a particular greenhouse gas is the ratio of heat trapped by one unit mass of the greenhouse gas to that of one unit mass of CO2 over a specified time period*. Methane has a GWP of 25 which makes this particular emission a greater cause for concern than CO2. The total greenhouses gases, including Methane saved in production of one ton of paper from 100% postconsumer fiber versus 100% forest fiber sources is 2108 pounds²
LANDFILL SPACE (cu yd) – 1 ton of books takes up 3.3 cubic yards of space in a landfill². The total pounds divided by 2000 equals total tons. Tonnage multiplied by 3.3 cubic yards and multiplied again by the 97% efficiency rating of postconsumer content paper yields the total cubic yards of space conserved.
KWHS – There are 4893 Kilowatt Hours of electricity saved per ton of paper produced when comparing 100% forest fiber sources to 100% postconsumer fiber². The conversion factor utilized was 1 Btu = 0.00029307108333 kilowatt hour.
Tons of Usable Fiber – Our recyclers report that 97% of the books that we send are turned into usable fiber. This 3% of refuse is used in calculation of any pertinent metrics. The total pounds of Recycled books divided by 2000 yield the total tonnage of usable fiber.
____________________________________________________________________________________1.
1. Environmental Protection Agency. Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. Retrieved October 27, 2008 from http://www.ofee.gov.
2. Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator. For more information visit http://www.papercalculator.org.
3. Borealis Centre for Trade Environment and Trade Research. Findings from the U.S. Book Industry: Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/documents/trends_summary.pdf.
*Environmental Protection Agency. High Global Warming Potential (GWP) Gases. [Online] Retrieved October 28, 2007 from http://www.epa.gov/highgwp/scientific.html"
RSS Feed