Hello everbody,
we asked ourselves whether a book or an iPad (eBook) is actually more environmentally friendly. We have created a small chart to compare this.
An iPad needs about 15 KG of minerals to produce while a book needs 0.3 KG. A book also needs a large amount of sand and gravel and 9 litres of water. For the battery and circuit board of the iPad 300 litres of water are needed. As far as energy is concerned, the iPad needs more, namely 100 kilowatt hours and the book only 2 kilowatt hours. Also the CO2 emission of the iPad is higher (33 KG). With the book the emission is 100 times smaller!
If transport and the entire period of use of the book is involved, the iPad can show its advantages. A book can be read for 2-3 weeks and an iPad can be owned for longer. If you order a book from Amazon, it causes environmental pollution that is about half as big as the pollution that was used to produce the book. Emissions for buying a book in the online shop are close to zero. If you take into account the listed raw materials, i.e. water, energy and minerals, an iPad is worthwhile from 40 to 50 books read. If you take an average of one book read per month, it takes a whole 4 years until the iPad is ecologically profitable (the older the iPad is, the longer the time span).
We hope we can find more interesting information.
This is the source we used.
Do you prefer a book or an iPad to read?
Thanks and best regards,
Maria & Deniz