The Cost

The environment cost:(1)

• It takes an average of 5 liters of water to produce one piece of A4 paper.
• 50% of the waste of businesses is composed of paper.
• Recycling 1 ton of paper saves around 682.5 gallons of oil, 26,500 liters of water and 17 trees.
• Packaging makes up 1/3 or more of our trash.
• U.S offices use 12.1 trillion sheets of paper a year. 
• Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste and 33% of municipal waste.
• With all the paper we waste each year, we can build a 12 foot high wall of paper from New York to California!
• Lessening of paper usage was predicted due to the electronic revolution. It didn’t happen. Demand for paper is expected to double before 2030.

The government cost:

The cost amount depends on the size of the library may or may not including land rights, utility, electricity, heat, water, phones, Internet, materials, programming, and so on. James Taber, who was a librarian in the Northeastern United States since 2008, shared the cost to build one library “between $8 million and $15 million. It already costed massive money to build existing 284 libraries in Georgia (2,840 million= 10 million on average * 284 libraries) (2). The government already spent hundreds of millions to establish thousands of libraries. Nobody wanted this investment would be collapsed in the future as other traditional bookstores.

The education cost:

Many professionals and students believe that the library is important to them and their careers. The high school statistics in U.S show (3):

1. In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes.
2. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.
3. Georgia schools are not producing enough degree people to fill jobs in the future economy.

Nowadays, the students behavior of leaving school are higher and they do not excited to learn in school. America education need improving. Now the library is not just the books, but also make kids and adult make real experience on what they learn from school or classes.

The employee cost:

In Georgia, there are about 2,700 full-time equivalent employees and thousands of volunteers who are helping them now. Everyone who are working in the libraries now, they are feeding their lives and their families. 

The library affects the government, education, family and, especially the kids. Therefore, maintaining and redesigning the local library are meaningful and valuable operating.  

(1) http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Paper-Waste-Facts

(2) https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-cost-to-build-and-run-a-community-library

(3) https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates