Technically, whoever wrote for Kermit said it first, “It’s not easy being green.”
Reduce, reuse, recycle: it is tattooed on my cerebral cortex. I cannot make a buying decision or throw anything into the trash before considering the three R’s. I have been living a green lifestyle since before green became the color of environmental responsibility. Before Al Gore preached the gospel of an inconvenient truth. 
In the 70s and 80s you had to haul your paper, metal and plastic to designated recycling centers. No curbside pick-up. So I hauled mine, my office’s and newspapers I gathered from neighbors.
When I had a motel on the Oregon coast, I hauled recyclable materials 20 miles to the nearest recycling center.
It isn’t easy being green, but I have always felt a moral imperative to reduce my personal impact on the Earth and I have sacrificed convenience.
When I decided to help found Puddletown Publishing Group, questions about the environmental impact of ereaders and ebooks tickled the back of my brain.
Sure there were the obvious advantages of ebooks versus paper books. Less paper means fewer trees lost to the process. But what about the materials used to make ereaders? What about the manufacturing process? How are they recycled? Who is involved? What are they made of? Where do the materials come from? When does the benefit to the environment pay off?
Between now and Earth Day— April 22— the journalist in me will probe the who, what, when, where and how regarding the sustainability of ereaders and ebooks. Check back for the answers, they may surprise you.
It may not be easy being green, but I think it would be harder to be a frog.
puddletown 