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ELECTRONIC TEXTBOOKS AS ALTERNATIVES TO PRINTED TEXTBOOKS

            The life cycle of paper is deleterious to the environment. It starts by ending the lives of several trees by deforestation and burning them to produce paper, despite the fact that in the end, it leaves an extensive amount of paper wastes in landfills coming from establishments such as schools. Printed textbooks used by students and teachers for learning and teaching are one of the major contributors of paper wastes. 320 million textbooks are discarded to landfills annually and approximately 30 million trees are harvested and deforested to produce them (According to the global statistics of the University of Michigan). Utilizing electronic textbooks instead of printed textbooks in school for learning and teaching is better. It is sustainable and reduces the environmental burden of paper.        

            Electronic textbooks are digital, which means the usage of paper is not needed. There are no environmental impacts in their creation as they do not require trees, ink, or glue. According to a report by the Cleantech Group of San Francisco, every electronic textbook takes the place of 22.5 printed textbooks. It has the potential to save at least two trees and around ten thousand sheets of paper. Considering the total number of students and teachers that use printed textbooks in school, there could have been millions of trees spared from destruction.

            Electronic textbooks can also greatly reduce paper waste. Typically, 25% to 36% of printed textbooks are returned to the publishers. Those returned copies will be disposed of and burned. If schools enable the usage of electronic textbooks, they eliminate the need to acquire and deliver new printed textbooks per year. They are sustainable and could last you for several years. It will certainly reduce paper production and help to conserve our natural resources.

            Although the usage of printed textbooks can be destructive to the environment, it also has advantages in terms of convenience and availability. It is proven that students learn more successfully from printed textbooks than from screens. They can retain more information in memory when information and texts are printed. They also do not need to be charged for you to access it, so it can give you with complete accessibility at all times.

            The Earth has already been destroyed by humans in several ways. Humans should at least do the bare minimum to save our planet. It is important to conserve our natural resources and to refrain from utilizing paper as much as possible to lessen its hurtful impacts to the environment. It may not be possible for the world to be paperless, but electronic textbooks certainly save paper and help protect trees, which keep humans alive.