Basılı ve elektronik kitapların yaşam döngüsü değerlendirmesi ve maliyet analizi

Responsible production and consumption, which is one of the United Nations sustainable development goals, is becoming more important day by day. Environmentally friendly management of products throughout their life cycles and reducing the harmful effects of waste on human health and the environment are important parts of this development goal. Therefore, a good analysis of the environmental impacts of products used in daily life and improvements to reduce the environmental impacts of the products during their life cycles will be an important step in order to achieve this goal. Also, in the case of alternatives, choosing products with less environmental impact will help to be closer to responsible consumption goal. Based on these objectives, the comparison between environmental impacts of printed books and e-books was carried out using life cycle assessment method. The comparison was performed with different reading rates and the aim was to find for which reading rates which reading tool would be a more environmentally friendly option. Furthermore, the environmental impacts of distribution have been demonstrated by comparing distribution process of books to rural areas and the distribution process of books to urban areas. When the electronic book reading option is added, three different scenarios have been calculated to find which reading option has less environmental impact for the readers living in different areas with different reading habits. In addition, cost analysis, which is an important criterion for the readers, has been added to find which reading option for which book reading rate will be less costly.