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ON HARRY POTTER AND THE MUGGLE FOREST...
Harry Potter and the half-good prints13
July 2005 Harry Potter Book 6 - can Harry save ancient forests?
Amsterdam, Netherlands — Another Harry Potter is about
to hit the bookstores, another magical year at Hogwarts is about
to begin. But who is really the bad guy this time? Some of Harry
Potter's publishers are working their magic and printing their
editions on ancient forest friendly paper. But others are behaving
like the evil wizard Voldemort and destroying muggle forests forever.
The English language edition of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince' hits the bookstores on 16 July. The good guys are the
Canadian and German publishers for printing the book on ancient
forest friendly papers. Bloomsbury, the UK publisher of Harry
Potter, has also made some good progress, and the Italian and
Israeli editions are also expected to join the forces of good
when the translations are published in the autumn.
Canadian Publisher Raincoast Books has once again set a positive
trend for Harry Potter publishers worldwide in helping to save
ancient forests. Raincoast are living up to their commitment to
print all their titles on ancient forest friendly paper and have
printed the Canadian edition of Harry Potter on 100 percent post-consumer
recycled paper.
Muggles for ancient forests!
Print runs for Harry Potter are so huge that this kind of effort
really does make a difference. The good news is, other publishers
around the world have met the standard set by Raincoast in 2003,
and are also publishing on Ancient Forest Friendly paper.
The German edition published by Carlsen will be printed on 40
percent post-consumer recycled paper and 60 percent Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) certified virgin fibre. The UK edition, published
by Bloomsbury, is expected to be printed on a 30 percent FSC certified
paper - a positive first step by the publishing house. Publishers
in Spain and the Netherlands are still deciding which paper to
use.
The publisher that should not be named
However, not all publishers are following this trend. Less progressive
Harry Potter publishers like Scholastic in the USA have not responded
to the challenge, and in fact ignored the 12,400 emails from customers
who asked it to print 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'
on ancient forest friendly paper. It seems they haven't been using
Professor Trelawney's crystal ball enough.
"The US publisher Scholastic is one of the largest Harry
Potter publishers globally," said our resident book wizard
Judy Rodrigues. "If they had printed the book on 100 percent
recycled paper, like Raincoast, its 10.8 million print run could
have saved 217,475 mature trees."
Not only has Scholastic missed out on helping to save ancient
forests , it looks like they might have missed out on financial
savings too, with the BBC and New York Times reporting that some
US Potter fans are thinking of buying their editions from Canada.
Harry at a glance
So, how does your Harry Potter publisher stack up?
We've made it easy to tell with the Hogwarts Publishers Honour
Roll.
5 lightning bolts - The publisher is truly at Harry level and
working for good. They are printing 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince' on 100 percent ancient forest friendly paper, and have
even committed to printing other books on this paper too.
4 lightning bolts - The publisher has made good progress but
isn't quite at Hermione level yet. They have made some good progress
though and are printing 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'
on at least partially ancient-forest friendly paper.
3 lightning bolts - The publisher has made commitments to printing
on ancient forest friendly paper. They are a bit like Ron Weasly
- good intentions, but still some way to go.
If the publisher has no lightning bolts, they have made no effort
and are a bit like Malfoy - they might say they are using ancient
forest friendly paper, but have shown us no evidence.
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