By Dana Buenaobra/ Photo by Vlad Bagacian on Pexels.com
Audiobooks have been around since 1935, primarily to aid people with blind or partial eyesight. But ever since 2018, audiobooks’ popularity skyrocketed as people living in a fast-paced modern world came to realize that audiobooks are more convenient and affordable than printed publications.
Most importantly, listening to audiobooks is way more environmentally friendly than paper-based books. Below are the top five reasons why they benefit the environment.
1. Audiobooks save trees
Thirty million trees are used to produce printed books in the US annually, according to reference.com. Since audiobooks come in a digital form, there is no need to use paper, thus reducing tree consumption.
2. Audiobooks save fuels
While it takes fuels and gases to transport printed books from printing machines to bookshelves, audiobooks can be easily downloaded or accessed from any part of the world with a click of a button.
3. Audiobooks reduce unnecessary packaging
The fact that audiobooks are digital products means that packaging materials or wrapping papers are spared.
4. Audiobooks save water and energy
It takes 20 liters of water to produce one single piece of A4 size paper. The whole printed book’s production involves printing, cutting, folding, sewing, and gluing, which consumes more energy than just using water.
On the contrary, audiobooks consume far less energy than printed ones as they do not involve these production processes.
5. Audiobooks help reduce waste
The US Environmental Protection Agency reported that 640,000 tons of books were discarded into landfill in 2009. The more we choose audiobooks over printed ones, the less paper waste we produce.
Compared with printed publications, audiobooks are friendlier to the environment as they use less energy and resources in both production and transportation processes. With just a little change from reading books to listening, we can improve the environment in our small way.
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