According to Eco-Libris, approx 20 million trees are being cut down every year to produce the books sold in the U.S. alone. For example, if a publisher sells one million copies of a 250-page book, it will take over 12,000 trees to produce just that one book. The Green Press Initiative estimates that nearly 40% of the materials found in landfills are paper products that produce methane as it degrades – a greenhouse gas with 21x the heat trapping power of carbon dioxide.

What to do? 2 options

Eco-Libris is essentially a carbon credit clearinghouse for your textbooks. You enter how many books you want to “balance out with Eco-Libris, pay for it online, and a tree will be planted for each of those books.” Eco-Libris then works with a planting partner in a developing country to plant a tree in a location that is sustainable and beneficial for the community. You even get a sticker for your books that is “designed for you to put on the cover of the books you balance out, to show your commitment to sustainability and responsible use of natural resources.”

Eco-Libris encourages users to do more “We would like to see more (and eventually all) books printed in an environmentally friendly manner on recycled paper. If virgin paper is being used, then it should only be from certified forests. You can help make this happen by writing publishers and encouraging them to do the right thing.”

Enter Chegg

Save money, plant a tree. Chegg can save you tons of much needed cash by renting your textbooks and Chegg plants a tree for every book rented.

“Chegg textbook rentals help college students save hundreds of dollars on buying new or used college textbooks each semester. With millions of new & used books, finding the textbook you need at discounted prices is easy, not to mention our fast delivery and easy book returns. In addition to renting cheap textbooks, Chegg is committed to preserving our forests by planting a tree for every textbook rented. Save big and be green by renting textbooks!”

And they give you a pre-paid return label.

A little bit more about Chegg for you Iowa State University fans.

“Chegg.com (formerly known as cheggpost.com) was first launched at Iowa State University (ISU) by a group of students to purchase and resell used textbooks. Since thriving at ISU, Chegg has blossomed to include more than 35 colleges and has expanded its categories to include furniture, event tickets, housing, computers and electronics”

An old-school screenshot of cheggpost courtesy of Dustyd.net