As I sat on the Bart train from SF yesterday, my feet were swimming in the cheap wood pulp prints... so I read it and took it home to clean my glass windows with it. I mean really... have you ever tried to read one of these things on a busy public train before? Well it was a nightmare, trying to fold the papers easily without taking up more personal space than given just to me. Plus, my hands went black and I did not want to touch my baby afterwards, may he never know my pains with these ancient media wastes.
I would much more prefer to click any story I like on my smartphone or read it from a iPad type digital device. With this relatively new option I can share any pertinent, interesting or relevant article to old friends or maybe fellow dads, anyone really depending on the content in one touch of my CLEAN finger... now that works! My 67 year old father still reads a newspaper daily and often cuts parts out, highlights it, puts it into another paper envelope, buys postage, and ships it to me 3000 miles away for me to read and recycle across the country... WTF!!!
I can't even conceive the number of trees lost and acreage gone to print these now useless daily information paper blobs and then fold them into a plastic bag (that never truly disappears) and mail it (via fossil fuels) to your doorstep to be read for about 10 minutes on average... what a crap old system we have!
Luckily, evolution is working it's magic and readership is declining with niche magazines filled with in-depth topics, like mini-books are taking their place. Digital media will close them out of their home territory and hopefully as social security ends so will the generation of the newspaper readers.
I say BAN them now, along with the plastic bag they come in... so lets all get smart with our media before we run out of trees, paper, air, clean water and all the other things the large media newspapers, don't want you to know about anyhow!
Check out more online resources and data (see how easy this is):
An average yearly newspaper subscription (for example, the San Francisco Chronicle) received every day produces 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of waste paper per subscription per year. The average New York Times Sunday edition produces eight million pounds (3.6 million kilograms) of waste paper.
~ http://www.answers.com/topic/how-much-waste-paper-does-a-newspaper-generate
One 35 to 40 foot (10.6 to 12 meter) tree produces a stack of newspapers four feet (1.2 meters) thick; this much newspaper must be recycled to save ONE tree.
~ http://www.answers.com/topic/how-much-newspaper-must-be-recycled-to-save-one-tree-science
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/newspapers-suck-less-than-you-think/
Newspaper waste photo by TalkingTree
