Ebook readers and ebooks are considerably better for the environment that traditional printed books. The fact that they don’t use paper, ink or bindings is certainly helpful. However, the major benefit is possibly a little less obvious.
Traditional printed books are a physical product, which means that they need to be transported. This will be by road or rail more often than not. They may be delivered to a bookshop or they may be delivered direct to the customer’s house by mail. To give you some idea of the impact of transportation, getting in your car and driving to the mall to buy a book will double that book’s carbon footprint.
Ebooks are delivered by either wi-fi or 3G, depending upon which ebook reader you have, so they don’t have this transport element of environmental impact. That’s why ebook readers and ebooks are better for the environment – even allowing for the materials used in the ebook reader hardware itself.