Why buy used books?

The environmental benefits of second hand books

The book life cycle

1.  Material acquisition and processing: the production of book components such as jackets, ink, glue and paper. Environmental impacts include deforestation, toxic chemical use, water use, industrial emissions.
2. Production: the printing and assembly of the book. Environmental impacts include toxic chemical use, water use, industrial emissions.
3. Distribution and storage: the shipping, handling and storage of the manufactured book, including in shops and warehouses. Environmental impacts include transport emissions.
4. End of life: once the book has been purchased and read, it must be disposed of. Environmental impacts include recycling and processing emissions, landfill gases.BeZero Carbon Ltd (2021) Assessing the Carbon Footprint of Print vs Electronic Publication Formats, https://www.jellybooks.com/cloud_reader/catalogues/bezero-jellybooks-carbon-footprint-report, accessed 18 March 2021

The publishing and bookselling industry is beginning to take the environmental impact of this life cycle more seriously. The BookPeople Sustainability Paper, released in March 2023, noted that, as a sector at the frontlines of consumption, utilising inputs with a heavy environmental footprint, the book industry had a unique opportunity to contribute to Australia’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

It highlighted a variety of efforts underway within the industry to reduce the environmental impact of book production and retailing. These ranged from net-zero pledges to new packaging, transport and waste management practices, as well as public reporting on greenhouse gas emissions.

Give a book another life


By purchasing books second-hand (or third- or fourth-hand), readers can help reduce their environmental impact. This is because re-using books, instead of buying them new, interrupts the book life-cycle, spreading the environmental cost of book production and retailing over a larger number of reads.

According to fig. 1, approximately 1.32 kg of greenhouse gases (43 per cent of the book’s total footprint) are emitted during material acquisition and processing. If a book were read after being bought second-hand, instead of new, these emissions are effectively eliminated for that read; the reader enjoyed the same experience without the need to produce another book. It’s the same for production and end of life. Each time a reader reads a used book, instead of a new one, these emissions are not incurred.

Of course, reading used books instead of new ones is not costless to the environment. Used books still need to be transported, stored and retailed, and eventually will come to the end of their lives. But as fig. 2 shows, the emissions reductions represented by just a few extra reads are significant. If a book is re-used four times, instead of being disposed of and replaced by four new ones, the emissions at the end of its fourth life are approximately 73 per cent lower. That’s almost a three-quarter reduction in emissions for the same reading experience. Even if a book is only re-used once before being disposed of, the emissions are halved.

There’s nothing wrong with buying new books. Discovering new releases and new ideas is one of the joys of being a reader. As the BookPeople report showed, the Australian book industry is working hard to reduce its environmental impact all across the supply chain; as a result, even your new books are likely to be much less environmentally damaging than those produced five, ten or twenty years ago. But if you can, consider buying a used book instead. It gives the book another life, and gives the planet a break – plus, you might find something you didn’t expect!

Appendix A: Chart Data


The BeZero Carbon study calculates life-cycle GHG emissions for four different books. These vary in size, production method, publisher, material and genre, thus forming a representative sample of the publishing industry as a whole. Fig. 1 presents averages for this sample.


‘New’ presents cumulative emissions incurred with each new book purchased and disposed of, including material acquisition, production, distribution and storage and end of life. ‘New’ presents cumulative emissions of a used book across four ‘lives’. ‘First life’ does not include end of life emissions, reflecting the re-insertion of the book back into the supply chain. ‘Second’ and ‘Third’ life solely include distribution and storage emissions, representing each time the book is transported back to and held at a storage/retail facility. ‘Fourth’ life includes end of life costs, reflecting the disposal of the book.

Refrences
1. BeZero Carbon Ltd (2021) Assessing the Carbon Footprint of Print vs Electronic Publication Formats, https://www.jellybooks.com/cloud_reader/catalogues/bezero-jellybooks-carbon-footprint-report, accessed 18 March 2021
2. BookPeople (2023) Towards a Sustainable Bookselling Future, BookPeople, Kew East