Book Smart

I've been a fan of body+soul magazine for a while now, even though it sometimes tends to get a little too granola for me. But I really do end up with a few takeaways from every issue. One of my faves was a recipe for roasted asparagus and poached eggs. YUM!

This weekend I came across an article on a subject I honestly haven't thought about before. While I try to consider myself environmentally friendly; I recycle, bring my own bags to the grocery store and get very angry with people who cut down trees, I never thought about all the trees that were lost to make one of my favorite things: books. Currently, I get most of my books from the library or borrow from friends because I just don't have the space for a wonderful collection. But I aspire to have a killer library of my own someday.

I tried to find this short article online with no luck. But it's good enough to share, so here it is, word-for-word:

"The United States consumes an average of roughly 30 million trees a year to make books. Some smaller publishers offer eco-options – a recycled paper Bible from Thomas Nelson, for instance – and now major publishing houses are following suit. Scholastic, which printed the last Harry Potter installment on 30 percent recycled paper, has teamed up with the Rainforest Alliance, committing to use paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for up to 30 percent of its pages by 2012. Random House has pledged to produce at least 30 percent of its pages from recycled material by 2010, a move that will spare an estimated 550,000 trees per year. Not to be left out, Simon & Schuster recently committed to boosting its recycled-paper content to 25 percent or more by 2012, and to ship its merchandise to retailers in cartons made from 100 percent recycled material."