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.”