Screening LCA of printed newspaper, web based newspaper and tablet e-paper newspaper
Daily news is something most of us are related to. Nowadays we can get news through different forums, e.g. news on TV; news on the radio; printed newspapers; web based newspapers and a recent addition to this list is the tablet e-paper newspaper. Electronic paper (e-paper) is an electronic display device that aims to be paper-like. In addition the e-paper alternative requires less energy in the use phase then reading news on the web. The tablet e-paper will reduce the use of paper and also the use of energy for reading the news compared to the printed newspaper and the web based newspaper respectively. But what about other parts of the e-paper life cycle; the production of the e-paper device; the waste management of old devices; use of infrastructure for electronic distribution? What will be the environmental impacts of these activities?
The aim of this project was to describe the potential environmental impacts of three studied product systems; printed newspaper, web based newspaper and tablet e-paper newspaper. A screening LCA was performed, aiming to draw rough conclusions on the potential impacts of the three studied newspaper systems. The results indicated that there is a potential for tablet e-paper to decrease the environmental impact of newspaper consumption. Identified key aspects of the environmental performance of the three product systems included: number of readers per copy, reading time for web-based newspaper as well as lifetime and multi-use of electronic devices.
Project team: Alex Jonsson, Medieteknik, KTH; Åsa Moberg, fms, KTH; Martin Johansson, STFI-Packforsk and Göran Finnveden, fms, KTH.
Funding: The project was a forerunner within the VINNOVA Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Communications and it was performed in co-operation with STFI-Packforsk.
Period: 2006-2007
Contact person: Åsa Moberg, asa.moberg@infra.kth.se
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