[Web4lib] Paperless society

[Lars Aronsson]

K.G. Schneider wrote:

> I always hate to break up a good discussion with the facts. 
> However, paper generation has been rising for over four decades.

Yes, this seems to be the case.

The 2nd slide in this English language presentation from the 
Swedish Forest Industries shows that Sweden's production of paper 
has increased steadily from 6 million tonnes in 1980 to 12 million 
tonnes in 2006, of which a constant 1.5 million tonnes is for 
domestic use and the rest is exported,
http://www.forestindustries.se/ArbioWebContent/Images/FSI/ohImages/pdf/13_pdf_en.pdf

Slide 8 in the same presentation shows that domestic deliveries 
are constant while imports to Sweden increase slightly.

Sweden is the world's 7th largest producer of paper and the 4th 
largest exporter (the domestic market is not very big). Some 25-30 
percent of Swedish industry relates to forestry.

----

However, according to the annual report of the Royal Library, the 
legal deposit of Swedish print (books, magazines, newspapers, 
catalogs, time tables, posters, advertisements, ...) has declined 
slightly every year since at least 2002.

This brief summary is in Swedish only, but given the legend below, 
you can read the tables on page 4, 
http://www.kb.se/Dokument/Om/verksamhet/arsredovisningar/arsredovisning_kort2006.pdf

Tryckt... = Printed matters acquired by legal deposit or gifts

Svensk tryckproduktion = Swedish imprints (steady decline)
Nya media = new media
Dagstidningar = daily newspapers (constant)

Inkommet... = Acquired matters in categories

Kartor = maps (constant)
Bilder/vykort = pictures/postcards (decline)
Affischer = posters (decline)
Musiktryck = print music (constant)
Monografier = monographs (constant)
Serier/rapporter = reports and serials (slight decline)
Årsböcker = annual publications (slight decline)
Tidskriftshäften = magazines, journals (slight decline)
Okatalogiserat tryck = non-cataloged imprints (decline)

Most people would think of "real books" (monographs) when they 
think of libraries, and a constant number of 17,000 are output 
each year (written, translated or reprinted) each year in Sweden. 
The "non-cataloged" category includes time tables, advertising, 
brochures etc. and shows a clear downward trend from 144,327 items 
in 2002 to 118,853 items in 2006.  Since Swedish businesses were 
in a crisis in 2002 (Ericsson layoffs) and had a great year in 
2006, that can't explain the decline.

It's remarkable that a constant 300 to 350 thousand newspapers are 
listed each year.  That would be nearly 1,000 different titles or 
editions (times 365 days), in a country with 3 million households 
(9 million people).  And this number is apparently unchanged by 
the advent of newspaper websites.

These tables only report the number of unique items that arrived 
at the Royal Library.  They don't tell how many copies were 
printed of each item or how many tonnes of paper was used.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se