Harry Potter Recycled, eh?
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 07. 8.05
Sorry for the bad cliché. Those who are planning to buy the new tome of the Harry Potter saga on July 16th should consider ordering the 100% recycled-paper Canadian version. The American version, printed by Scholastic, it said to contain "some recycled paper", but the company won't say how much and it certainly is not 100%. The Canadian version can be found online by people south of the border and should cost about $2 more in shipping. Read on for an excerpt from a New York Times article about the campaign to get the publishing industry to start using more recycled paper.
As part of a growing worldwide campaign that is prompting a shift in the publishing industry, environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace, are asking Potter fans in the United States not to buy Scholastic's editions and instead to order the new title online from Canada, where the publisher, Raincoast Books, has printed the book on 100 percent recycled paper. Scholastic says it does use some recycled paper for its books, including the Potter series, but it would not divulge the amount.
Environmental groups have drawn a growing number of noted authors, including J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter's author; Alice Walker; Isabel Allende; Barbara Kingsolver; Margaret Atwood; Michael Ondaatje; and the Canadian short-story writer Alice Munro, into their crusade to promote greater use of recycled paper. Several organizations, including the Green Press Initiative, in Ann Arbor, Mich., are in talks with religious groups with licenses to publish versions of the Bible. [...]
The forest-friendly publishing movement has gained much traction recently, with more than 85 small and medium-sized publishers in the United States having signed on to the effort so far, and a few major publishers poised to go in this direction, according to the Green Press Initiative. In Canada, 85 publishers have joined, 75 percent of that country's literary publishers, Ms. Rycroft said, including large houses there like Raincoast Books, as well as Random House and Doubleday in Canada.
Update: I forgot to mention that we have posted something similar about the previous tome of the Potter series. You can read it here. And yes, borrowing a copy from the library or a friend probably is the most eco-friendly way to read this book.
Thanks to Dave Roberts of Gristmill for the tip!
::A Bid for Harry Potter's Green Fans, via ::Gristmill blog
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
Not to be negative, but shipping is extremely expensive (an extra $10 through Amazon.ca) and ecologically unsound from Canada to the United States. It would probably be better for the environment (and our wallets) if we all picked up our copy from our local bookstore (esp. if we walk!) and wrote to the publisher asking them to print further editions on 100% recycled paper.
It's great that they're offering this in Canada, though! Certainly a step in the right direction.
I second Meghan's post because it also supports a local bookseller.
a ride on a bike vs. the amount of jetfuel required to ship it...... i think the tree's got to go, then recycle that tree to sooth your recycling urge
Well, I guess it depends how you were going to buy the US version.
Reader of this site would probably ride on their bike and buy it from a mom & pops bookstore.. But the general public probably buys it from Amazon.com or some megastore.
Shipping from Canada, if you don't take the airmail option, is almost a toss-up as far as distance. If you live in the North of the US, chances are that a Canadian wharehouse is as close or closer to you than a US wharehouse since almost all big Canadian cities are close to the border.
So there are some variables to take into account. But you have a point.
Personally, I say borrow it from a friend or the library.
Incidentally, the UK version's printed on 30% 'sustainably-harvested wood':
http://wirelessdigest.typepad.com/hippyshopper/2005/05/harry_potter_go.html
or you could buy the ebook.
Buying the Canadian copy is $12 more expensive than if you were to bike to your neighborhood bookstore. If you were vegetarian (which I am) and the veggie pizza cost $12 more than the meat pizza, would you buy the meat pizza instead? I wouldn't. Skip going out to dinner a couple times and you have your $12 back. As far as jet fuel goes, the mail does travel, regardless of whether I order a copy of HP from Canada or not.
Doesn't anyone use the library any more? :)
Sure, you'll have to wait longer, but talk about effective recycling!
thats really silly!! i live in the place jk rowling grew up in and im obsessed with the books, but i expect its more expensive to buy the book if you live outside the UK