New vs Used Books
When I was setting up my plans for Book Bubble, I was fascinated to learn that making and selling a new book creates more that 5 times the CO2 emissions of shipping a used book over 2000 miles!1
BookFinder (a US based online book search engine) have done the sums and it's an interesting read. Look into it yourself here if you don’t believe me – you might be surprised.
Now, you might be someone that always buys new books and supports their local bookshops.
Or perhaps you are someone that always visits their local charity shops and book sales and likes a bargain?
If you are anything like me, you might do a bit of both. Buying new books can be really helpful when you are looking for a title you can't find elsewhere and supporting your used book shops and charity shops is great when you are looking for a holiday read or your next bit of escapism.
But what is clear to me is that buying used books where possible and encouraging others to do the same can really help reduce our carbon footprint.
Buying and valuing a preowned book also saves more books ending up in landfill.
Why Buy From Book Bubble?
So how can we help?
- All our books are pre-loved so are minimising our impact on the planet compared to buying new.
- Our books are in the best possible second-hand condition – like new, excellent or very good.
- You are hardly compromising on that new book hit!
- Great online shop to browse like you might in a second hand book shop or charity shop.
- No need to leave home to get your next reading fix.
- Great search and browsing functions if you are looking for a specific author, genre or keyword
- I am adding new books all the time so there are more and more to chose from each time you visit.
- New listings are always listed first by default so visit regularly to see what is new in.
What I'd love to see where possible, is us moving further towards buying books that are available - a bit like shopping for seasonal and local food and goods.
This means a move away from our convenience, on-demand reading habits (whatever the environmental cost) of recent decades.
Are you with me?
Lucie
Book Bubble
1BookFinder 1997-2022, BookFinder.com, 'READuce, READuse, READcycle: Help save the planet, choose used books.', accessed 10 July 2022, <https://www.bookfinder.com/books/green_used_books/>