Skip to main content

Newspaper Waste Elimination & Improvement

I'm a strong supporter of local news organizations -- they are critical for a community. However after a lifetime of enjoying a printed newspaper, I've kicked the paper habit. We no longer have a paper newspaper delivered along with its rubber band and (often) plastic bag.

Instead I now get an electronic edition on my Apple iPad each morning. The delivery interface has improved tremendously from the early days of e-publishing, it was a surprisingly pleasant switch.  I really like the interface to the newspaper on my iPad:





I:

  1. can still skim/see the whole page and its context (the resolution on the iPad is much better than the picture above),
  2. tap on an article to read it in a bigger/easier/clearer font,
  3. can zoom into pictures,
  4. navigate easily and quickly to links,
  5. quickly get to past editions as well as other Bay Area Newsgroup papers,
  6. no longer need to worry about non-delivery of papers (happens a few times a year),
  7. can now have the computer search for me instead of having to flip pages,
  8. and more...
This has been a win all around for me although old habits die hard.


Waste reduction summary:
  1. Matter (material):
    1. Replaced paper, rubber band, and plastic with electrons. Significant reduction in what previously needed to be transported and recycled.
  2. Energy
    1. Big win. Electrons are cheap to deliver.
  3. Time
    1. Big win. Don't need to go out to driveway to retrieve, call if it got lost, or suspend when we go on trips. Can get it on iPad or computer wherever I am if I want it.
  4. Space
    1. Big win. iPad is very compact, newspapers took up space inside and in recycling bin.
  5. Money
    1. Big win. Cost for the electronic edition is about one third the cost of the print edition. I already owned the iPad for other reasons.
  6. Environment/Health/Life
    1. Big win. No longer killing as many trees, recycling still has an environmental toll. Rubber bands can be reused but need to find someone who needs them. I usually gave them back to my paper delivery person which took some time and money to do. Eliminating the need for plastic bags is huge. Plastic survives hundreds of years and is poisoning our ocean and land as well as people as it comes back around in our food chain.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Howard Baldwin - Columnist said…
Switching the paper version for an online newspaper version works great for some people, but not everyone. I would do it except for three problems: I can't do the puzzles online; I would have to get a second expensive tablet for my wife; and my wife is a techno-phobe. Paper (both with books and newspapers) can be shared -- that's a kind of reuse too.
February 1, 2016 at 7:55 AM
Tim Oey said…
Yes multiple readers is good reuse. Also that is a good point about doing puzzles online -- hopefully someone will fix that. You could print out just the puzzle onto paper but that is an extra step. As far as sharing, tablets can be shared too :-) At any rate, my wife rarely reads the paper so we don't conflict there. The SJ Mercury E-Edition newspaper app is super easy to use. And sending others clips of single articles or multiple pages as PDFs is easy as well. I've even archived entire issues at times to remember a particular event. It was tough for me to switch but now that I've done it, it is working very well.
February 1, 2016 at 8:40 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The best way to dispose of dog poop

Based on my research, the best way to handle dog poop is to use a reusable pooper scooper and flush the poop down a toilet . Pros: - Sewer systems are designed to handle poop (yours and your pet's) safely and effectively (this was verified by calling the local sewage treatment plant in Sunnyvale, California) - The poop is treated and recycled fairly quickly and safely back into the environment Cons: - Need to carry the poop to a toilet - Need to purchase or make a reusable pooper scooper Here are other alternatives generally listed from healthiest for environment to least healthy. Use a flushable poop bag and flush down a toilet. Pros: - Sewer systems are designed to handle poop - The poop is treated and recycled - Easy to carry bag around to pick up poop Cons: - Flushable bags can "melt" in rain or other very wet conditions - Flushable bags should be kept sealed in another plastic bag before use - Flushable bags are a bit expensive and hard to find - Flushable bags smell...
9 comments
Read more

Yes we can solve our climate emergency!

We humans are facing a climate emergency of our own making. On top of that mankind is consuming about twice as much resources as our earth can sustainably provide each year - look up Earth Overshoot Day. If every household with incomes equal to or greater than mine did what my household has done, we would no longer have a climate emergency. My house is now fully electric with all of its electricity from solar and a bit of wind (no fossil fuels). Our transportation is almost entirely by bicycle and electric car. Our household trash is down to about a quart a month. We count ourselves blessed to have everything we need to live comfortably. My household and others like us have shown that yes we can live well and still be responsible custodians of our world. We've cut our carbon and trash waste to less than a hundredth of what it was just 10 years ago. If mankind does not choose to reduce its resource consumption dramatically by either living much more economically or halving the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Would you like to be $2 Million Richer?

How would you like to be a millionaire? One way to help you get there is to save money. If you are a couple who is thinking of having 2 kids and 2 cars here are two big ways to reduce your costs. The USDA recently calculated that the average child in the US would cost $233,610 to raise from 0 to age 17. This does not include college costs. College costs can vary widely (community colleges are a great deal) but if you send your kid to a private college this can easily cost $50,000 to $70.000 a year or $200,000 to $280,000 for 4 years. So if a young couple chooses NOT to have two children, they could save roughly $1 million! Now on the car front, AAA recently calculated that the average cost of car ownership in the US is $9282 per year . That comes to $557,000 per car over a lifetime of car ownership (say about 60 years). So if a young couple decides to forgo owning two cars and use bicycles to get around instead they will save about $1.1 million! Combine the savings from deciding not t...
Post a Comment
Read more