Random House thinks green

Publishing giant Random House is planning a tenfold increase in the amount of recycled paper it uses in books printed in the United States.

The company announced Tuesday that by 2010, about 30% of the uncoated paper used in most of its U.S. titles will be made from recycled fibers, up from less than 3% now.

Random House Inc. called the change “the most substantial environmental initiative in the company’s history” and said it would save the equivalent of 550,000 trees per year.

A spokesman for Green Press Initiative, a group lobbying for greater use of recycled paper in publishing, called the Random House decision “phenomenal.”