ereaders are environmentally unfriendly?

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/may/tech/ee_ebooks.html
Would You Like That Book In Paper Or Plastic? 
Posted at 7:54AM Monday 12 May 2008 

When I showed off my e-reader around the office, I kept saying, "Just think how many trees I'll save!" I felt very eco-hip and started smirking at the poor saps reading the dead-tree edition of the Washington Post on the subway.
That worked fine until a bright co-worker pointed out that my fancy new piece of plastic might one day lie atop a pile of electronic junk in an Asian recycling facility, the kind where children pick through toxic components by hand.

..............

Our world has become such a complicated place that every purchasing decision can become a Ph.D. dissertation topic, as I quickly learned. Ultimately, I think our purchasing choices are also ethical ones; we decide whether inhaling the smell of a book is worth losing a tree and whether having a smaller carbon footprint is worth the risk of adding toxic waste to a far-flung land. No purchase is without consequence, although I'm feeling pretty good about having done my homework on this purchase, even if it was after the fact.

I can't do a full life-cycle assessment for every gizmo I buy, but I can take my purchases seriously and ask that manufacturers do, too-whether they make paper or plastic. -ERIKA ENGELHAUPT

Joseph Harris

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