The U.S. division of Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher, has vowed that, by 2010, a third of the paper it uses to print books will be recycled stock. The company now uses just three percent recycled paper, but plans to spend millions of dollars to increase that number to 30 percent over the next four years. According to Random House, that will save 550,000 trees each year.

The recycled goal is for uncoated paper, the type used in regular fiction and nonfiction hardcovers and paperbacks. But the company said it also plans to switch over its glossy books, such as coffee table art books, to paper that's 10 percent recycled.

Some independent presses already use recycled paper, but the large corporate publishers use mainly the conventional variety.

The move is Random House's latest foray into green publishing. Last year, the company's UK division signed onto the Greenpeace Book Campaign, which asks publishers to stop using paper made from old-growth forests and to encourage other companies to do the same. In 2004, Random House's Spanish children's imprint Mondadori committed to using 100 percent recycled paper, beginning with the Spanish edition of Forest of the Pygmies (El Bosque de los Pigmeos) by Isabel Allende.

Recycled paper generally costs up to five percent more than non-recycled, though costs are coming down as more and more milling companies are producing it and more. Some authors are pressing publishers to print their books on recycled paper - including Allende, J.K. Rowling, and Margaret Atwood. Rowling's last Harry Potter title was produced on 100 percent recycled paper in Canada, though not in the U.S., and many environmentally minded Potter fans ordered the Canadian editions.