Advantages Of What Environmental Impact Do E Book Readers Have
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-07-23 12:39:42 | Word Count: 510
What Envireonmental Ipact Do E-Book Readers Have?
When you consider the latest high tech gadget what goes through your mind? It will difffer from one person to another. Some may consider them to be trendy. Others may thnik that they are complicated and difficult to operate. So much depends upon your own individual perspectibve. Howver, it's probably reasonable to say that you won't associate the lattest hot perosnal electronics gadget with being more environmentally friendly - but electronic gadgets can, under the rigjht coditions, be better for the environment.
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One possible candidate woulkd be digital pictuure frames. These have become very popular over the last couple of yers. As a rersult of high levels of competition, prices have now falen to the point wherre you can buy a perfectly serviceanble digital frame for no more than you might exepct to pay for a traditiopnal frame. One of the many perceived benbefits of digital frames is the fact that they can store and display hundreds, sometimes thousands, of photos using one single frame.
It all depends upon how many snapshots you take, but if you tend to get a bit snap happy then dispplaying your photos using a digiital picture frame might well be better for the environment. Whether you avod having photos prrinted out at a processing lab or if you just print out less on your computer priunter you will wind up using fewer materials.
One furtehr example is the gadget du jour - the eletronic book reader. E-book readers have been available for quitte some time now, but they really took off in 2009. They look set to grow ever more popular durign 2010. Right now the Amazon Kinlde is the market leader - but Sony have also secured a good share of the market for thse devvices.
The U.S. book, magazine and nwspaper sector requires 125 million trees per annum in orer to feed it with papr. Addiitional to the trees required, vast quantities of water, chemicvals, enerfgy and ink are needed to satisfy our reading habit. As books are a physical product, they require to be delivered to the bookstore, generally using road transportation. Then cstomers get into their cars, drie to the book shop, buy their books and motor home again. It all adds up.
Electronic boosk do not need large amounts of paper, bindings, ink etc. in their productiion. Also, since they are not a physical product, they may be delivered using the intternet instead of the traditional road or rail transport network.
Of course, both digital photo framwes and e-book readers are physical products themselevs and they consume both eergy and materials during producton. They also require to be shipped to the retail outlet or duirect to the final user. Even so, studies have shown that, even when the materials consumed are offset aganist the savings in pper, energy, ink etc. that these types of devices can be better for the environment (thouygh to some exctent it will depend upon how many phots you procses or how many books you read in a year).
