7.16.2005

harry potter, eh

ALPF in absentia sent me this cool story. If you're planning on buying the new Harry Potter book, be sure to pick up a Canadian edition: it's printed on recycled paper, produced from non-old-growth forests.
What would Harry Potter do if Hogwarts forest were being destroyed? He'd act to save it, of course, and that's what his American fans are being urged to do by buying "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" — not in the United States but in Canada, where J.K. Rowling's latest book is printed entirely on recycled paper.

A coalition of conservation groups and Rowling herself have likened the mythical Hogwarts forest to old-growth trees used by paper suppliers around the world.

The author and the activists also have praised Raincoast Books, the publisher of Harry Potter books in Canada, for using paper that's recycled and certified as being free of pulp from ancient trees, generally defined as trees that are at least 150 years old.

Raincoast's printing of the book will save 28,000 trees — more than what would fill New York City's Central Park, activists say.

This is the second time around for Raincoast, which was the first publisher to use only recycled paper when the previous Harry Potter title came out in 2003. This time it's joined by a handful of other publishers around the world, but not the largest of them all: U.S.-based Scholastic.
Figures.

Americans can find the Canadian Harry Potter here and here.

3 comments:

Crabbi said...

Cool, thanks, L! I just heard about the Indigo site yesterday, in fact, and I may start shopping there. I hear the Amazon CEO contributes to the RNC, so he won't be getting any more of my money.

laura k said...

You're welcome! Chapters is the Barnes & Noble of Canada. Just so you know, it's not some little indie place.

Good for you re Amazon. I confess I am not very good when it comes to red vs blue spending. You remind me to think about it more.

sleepybomb said...

i dunno about blue or red stores, but i only buy blue products. anything subversive and incrimiating, music, books and movies. hell, i just got a marx bros t-shirt the other day, from cabela's!