Why Make Books and Other Printed Materials from Trees?

I love books as much as anyone, which is obvious to anyone laying eyes upon the piles of written material surrounding me at home.

But the destruction of trees to create paper for written materials is now an unnecessary practice. Bamboo, hemp, straw, corn, flax and other rapidly-renewable, recyclable materials offer a better option.

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants in existence, with some species growing more than a foot a day under the right conditions. Hemp, which was much more widely used before marijuana was defined as an illegal substance, provides a useful fiber for paper without destroying trees.

And a variety of other substances may also be used to create books and other written documents. McDonough and Braungart’s book Cradle to Cradle is printed on a waterproof synthetic paper-like material made from "plastic resins and inorganic fillers" (Cradle to Cradle, First Edition, p. 5).

Also, while still having some limitations compared to conventional books, e-books offer a reader the option of carrying a sizeable library in a pocket-sized PDA or other electronic device. Perhaps a major flaw with the e-book concept, though, is the constantly-changing nature of technology. While a printed book from 500 years ago is still readable today, will a document created on the electronic media of today still be readable 500 years in the future? After all, how many people still have the equipment to play 8-track tapes? (And that technology is less than 50 years old!)

So the issue of longevity is perhaps of some concern – who wants to see valuable works essentially disappear from the face of the Earth? But still, as paper replaced vellum, which required the killing of animals for their skin, something in turn must one day replace paper, which requires needless killing of trees.

The Kindle, a new e-book reader created by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, may provide a more book-like interface than any previous electronic book device. It may also one day provide the availability of all known published works from the past and present. And if it takes off, perhaps it will measurably reduce the need to cut down trees in order for people to read.

Indeed, if one has a love of both books and trees, then it would seem to make sense to both protect books that have already been made from trees, and to protect trees in the future from being destroyed to make more books.

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