A Random Act of Mindfulness

Random House to bump up use of recycled paper

For you fogies who still read books made of ... what do they call it? ... "paper," here's some good news: Leading U.S. publishing company Random House announced this week that it plans to increase the recycled-paper content of its books to 30 percent by 2010. It's an ambitious goal, as only about 3 percent of paper currently used in Random House books is recycled. The average recycled-paper content in the biz is about 5 percent. Random House, which buys about 120,000 tons of paper each year for book production, claims that 550,000 trees a year will be saved when it reaches its goal. The initiative will be a "multimillion-dollar investment," but the company doesn't plan to raise book prices. Said Tyson Miller of recycled-paper pushers Green Press Initiative: "What they're doing is phenomenal."