iRex’s green stats for the iLiad e-reader vs. a printout

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By David Rothman

“E-book readers might still only be black and white, but they should also be green: iRex, maker of the Iliad e-book, says printing a 60 page document will generate 328.8g of carbon, while reading the same document on a device reduces that to .25g. So electronic books should be more environmentally sound, and cheaper, as there’s no printing costs to cover.” – The Register.

The TeleRead take: So what do you think, gang? No, I don’t know the methodology that iRex used to arrive at those numbers. Did it include pollution created by manufacturing of the iLiad and consider the number of printed pages that the e-reader might typically help replace over its lifetime? Those are just two of the possible variables here; once you think about manufacturing, you probably can’t just consider those 60 pages alone. I’ll ask iRex for details. Whatever the case, I suspect that E is still the greener way to go by far. Moreover larger-screen machines like the iLiad would be more useful as paper replacements than smaller devices would in many situations, such as when detailed illustrations are used.

Related: E, Arab books and greening among themes in the spotlight at London Book Fair.

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