Using green tech ideas to save paper

I've confessed in the not-so-distant past to my not-so-secret book addiction. There are easily 50 unread tomes on my bookshelf, but I still find it hard to resist a new author. Or a new title by a favorite writer.

While the two Web sites that are the subject of today's blog aren't exactly green technology companies, they ARE companies using technology to attempt to deal with sad book-addled individuals like me who contribute to a lot of paper waste.

The first, DailyLit, hopes to encourage people to read books in installments, like in the days of Charles Dickens. Except now, instead of being delivered in paper form, each chapter or section is sent to your email (as frequently as you want it). Public domain books like my own personal favorite Pride and Prejudice (146 parts) are free. The cost of other books ranges. The 32-installment The Three-Martini Playdate: A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting, for example, is a mere $4.95.

Another bonus, now you only have to lug your laptop and not that new hardbook. And if you use a MacBook Air, it'll be even easier on the shoulder.

The other green-oriented start-up I came across recently is an innovative textbook rental company called Chegg.com. There are two reasons this organization is interesting: First, because it allows college students on more than 1,000 campuses to rent expensive text books at a lower cost than they would otherwise pay (60 percent to 80 percent less than the typical price). (The typical textbook is used twice in its useful education lifetime.) And second, through a relationship with Eco-Libris, Chegg has arranged to plant a tree for every textbook that is rented.