Rowling pledges to use recycled material

  October 2, 2003 at 10:48 PM ET
  Geri     Godric's Hollow (via The Guardian)
 

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter franchise and other best-selling authors have pledgedopens in new window to demand that, in future, their publishers print all of their books on paper from sustainable forestry projects or on recycled material.

Paper to produce giant, best-selling books, such as Rowling's latest, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, are derived from old-growth forests, which are disappearing partly because of the continuing demands from publishing companies. To protect ancient forests in Canada, Finland and south-east Asia, authors have agreed to work with Greenpeaceopens in new window to ensure that their next books are printed on recycled paper or paper produced from forests that have been certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Councilopens in new window.

Graham Lester George, the chairman of the Writers Guild of Great Britain, said:

"If we do not act now, the terrible irony is that our great grandchildren will only know of our ancient forests through pictures in books printed on paper that contributed their destruction."

It has been estimated that printing 2.5m books - the number of the young wizard's latest adventures sold in Britain - using the greenest methods, on recycled paper, would save:

89,200 trees felled

Enough water used to fill 105 Olympic-sized pools

Production of greenhouse gases equivalent a car being driven 8m miles

Electricity to power an average home for 610 years

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