Slitherin' Scholastic

Greens urge boycott of Harry Potter's U.S. publisher

J. K. Rowling and a coalition of eco-Muggles are giving props to Canadian publisher Raincoast Books for printing Rowling's hotly anticipated sixth novel -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, being released tonight -- entirely on recycled paper. Canadian conservation group Markets Initiative estimates that Raincoast's good green citizenship will save 28,221 trees -- more than would fill New York City's Central Park -- while increasing costs no more than 5 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. publisher Scholastic, the world's biggest Potter publisher, declines to reveal how much paper used in its 10.8-million print run of the book is post-consumer pulp, saying only that company policy is to not use paper made from old-growth forests. (Greenpeace contends that Scholastic contracts with suppliers that use paper made from Canadian old-growth boreal forests.) A coalition of green groups is urging Americans to boycott Scholastic and order the latest Potter tome from Canada, via Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca.