Abstract
Reuse is generally considered to have environmental benefits, but it has not yet been widely adopted in environmental policy or strategy. In this paper, a simple model of second-hand markets is explored with a case study of used books that illustrates the behavior of the model and shows that such a model is consistent with the data. Three questions of the dynamics of reuse are addressed: (1) If it becomes easier to buy and sell used goods (via Internet markets or other means), by how much will sales of used goods increase? (2) When sales of used goods increase, by how much will sales of new goods decrease? (3) When is reuse better than recycling? Expanding from the case study, the model is used to examine how reuse affects the consumption of new goods, and the relative merits of reuse versus recycling. When the used goods market is small, the ratio of the price of used and new goods, an observable quantity, is approximately equal to the fractional decrease in sales of new goods that will result from increased sales of used goods. A formulation of the environmental impact of reuse and recycling is developed that includes the market impact of reuse. Illustrating this formulation for books with a simplified analysis, reuse of books through sales in a second-hand market is estimated to save more than twice as much energy, with considerable uncertainty, than making books from recycled paper. The formulation provides a basis for identifying products and markets for which reuse can be an effective environmental strategy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The BISG data cited above suggests that sales of used books in book stores and other locations have been approximately constant for the past several years. If used book sales in stores and other locations were constant from 1997 to 2003, used book sales in the late 1990s would have been about 70 million per year, rather than 30 million books per year estimated by IPSOS in Table 1. Moreover, the data in Table 1 show a surprisingly large increase in used book sales in 2002. These issues underscore that the used book data should be considered as illustrative rather than definitive.
The sales of new and used books will be taken as proportional to the fractions of the population buying new and used books. This is equivalent to the assumption that the same number of books are bought by individual new and used book buyers.
Used books remain a small fraction of the total book market, and thus any environmental consequence of used book sales will be correspondingly modest. Nevertheless the potential material consequences are worth noting. From 1997 to 2003, sales of used books have increased from 36 million to 160 million books per year (Table 1 and US Census), an increase of 125 million books per year. The reduction in new book sales is, as modeled here, is very roughly about 0.7 times the sales of new books, or about 90 million books per year. With the average book weighing about 0.5 kg (Table 2), this amounts to, very roughly, about 45,000 tons per year.
References
Anderson SP, Ginsburgh VA (1994) Price discrimination via second-hand markets. Eur Econ Rev 38(1):23–44
Blum L, Denison RA, Ruston JF (1997) A life cycle approach to purchasing and using environmentally preferable paper. J Ind Ecol 1(3):15–46
Book Industry Study Group (2005) Press Release February 27, 2006. http://www.bisg.org/news/press.php?pressid=34. Accessed 25 September 2006
Book Industry Study Group (2006) Used-book sales: a study of the behavior, structure, size, and growth of the U.S. Used-Book Market. As cited on http://news.bookweb.org/news/4251.html
Bookweb (2006) E-commerce spurs exploding used-book market, study reports, bookselling this week. March 2. http://news.bookweb.org/news/4251.html. Accessed 22 February 2010
Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Initiative (2010) http://www.eiolca.net/. Accessed 22 February 2010
Chevalier J, Goolsbee A (2009) Are durable goods consumers forward looking? Evidence from college textbooks. Q J Econ 124(4):1853–1884
Davidsdottir B, Ruth M (2005) Pulp nonfiction: regionalized dynamic model of the U.S. pulp and paper industry. J Ind Ecol 9(3):191–211
Environmental Defense (2007) Paper calculator. http://www.edf.org/papercalculator/. Accessed 22 February 2010
Ferguson ME, Toktay LB (2006) The effect of competition on recovery strategies. Prod Oper Manage 15(3):351–368
Fichter K (2002) E-commerce: sorting out the environmental consequences. J Ind Ecol 6(2):25–51. doi:10.1162/108819802763471762
Fox AH (1957) A theory of second-hand markets. Economica 24:99–115
Freecycle.org (2010) http://freecycle.org. Accessed 22 February 2010
Ghose A, Smith MD, Telang R (2006) Internet exchanges for used books: an empirical analysis of product cannibalization and welfare impact. Inform Syst Res 17(1):3–19. doi:10.1287/isre.1050.0072
Hertwich EG (2005) Consumption and the rebound effect: an industrial ecology perspective. J Ind Ecol 9(1/2):85–98. doi:10.1162/1088198054084635
Ipsos (2001) The online book marketplace. http://www.ipsos-na.com/
Ipsos (2003) Books purchased by outlet. http://www.ipsos-na.com/
Kursten WA (1991) Theory of second-hand markets: the rapid depreciation of consumer durables and product differentiation effects. J Inst Theor Econ 147:459–476
Matthews HS, Williams E, Tagami T, Hendrickson CT (2002) Energy implications of online book retailing in the United States and Japan. Environ Impact Assess Rev 22(5):493–507. doi:10.1016/S0195-9255(02)00024-0
Midlin A (2006) Fewer textbook sales, but rising revenue. New York Times June 5, 2006, vol 155, p C3
Pogrebin LC, Schroeder PS (2002) Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers press amazon.com to alter its marketing of used books. http://www.readfilm.com/Amazon1.html. Accessed 22 February 2010
Rosenthal M (2005) Buying a second-hand PC––used computer prices. http://www.daileyint.com/hmdpc/second.htm. Accessed 22 February 2010
Ruth M, Harrington T (1998) Dynamics of material and energy use in U.S. pulp and paper manufacturing. J Ind Ecol 1(3):147–168. doi:10.1162/jiec.1997.1.3.147
Scitovsky T (1994) Towards a theory of second-hand markets. Kyklos 47:33–51. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6435.1994.tb02247.x
Thomas VM (2003) Demand and dematerialization impacts of second-hand markets: reuse or more use? J Ind Ecol 7(2):65–78. doi:10.1162/108819803322564352
US Census Bureau (2010a) Table 1024. New and used car sales and leases, and Tables 939 and 944. The 2010 Statistical Abstract. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2006/domestic_trade/domtrade.pdf. Accessed 22 February 2010
US Census Bureau (2010b) http://www.census.gov. Accessed 22 Feb 2010
US EPA (2010) Reduce reuse recycle. http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/. Accessed 22 February 2010
Williams E, Tagami T (2003) Energy use in sales and distribution via e-commerce and conventional retail: a case study of the Japanese book sector. J Ind Ecol 6(2):99–114. doi:10.1162/108819802763471816
Writenews (2004) Discounts and used books drive consumer demand. http://www.writenews.com/2004/043004_used_books.htm. Accessed 22 Feb 2010
Yokoo HF (2010) An economic theory of reuse. Sustain Sci 5:143–150. doi:10.1007/s11625-009-0091-3
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Edited by Eiji Hosoda, Keio University, Japan.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thomas, V.M. The environmental potential of reuse: an application to used books. Sustain Sci 6, 109–116 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-010-0115-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-010-0115-z