Any of us who go grocery shop Can hear the words at the checkout counter ringing in our ears. The bagger asks, "Paper or plastic?" while our food waits to be sequestered in the container of our choice. Of course, here in California and in some other places around the nation, many folks are using "recyclable" bags, recycled-fabric totes designed to be used over and over. Since I'm actually a tree-hugger of sorts, I refrain from using paper bags and prefer plastic bags made from dead dino droppings. I reuse these plastic bags to collect and preserve current pet droppings in my garbage can before they are carted off. This way, that modern waste will eventually be turned into more oil by good ol' Mother Earth, and in the meantime we can save the trees so as to build houses, make chopsticks, print books, and fuel our fireplaces on cold, oil-less nights. It seems trees are a bit cheaper than oil right now, except it takes oil to power the infrastructure.
This leads me to the thought of 4-Wheel & Off-Road magazine. We offer it three ways as well: paper, plastic, and recyclable. The first form you know very well as the printed magazine delivered to your door each month or the one you pick up at the newsstand to get your 4WOR fix. A lesser-known alternative is our online version at Zinio (www.zinio.com). I call this plastic, as it sure isn't paper, and the equipment used to read the mag-keyboard, monitor, PC-is made from a ton of plastic. The final style is recyclable, such as when you share your copy with friends and family, or even order a back issue from us here at the mag. That is truly the purest form of recycling, when even our print magazine saves trees and the forests so that we can go wheel through them.
The question of course is: How do you prefer to read our mag? They all have their good and bad points, and we hope all three methods stay available, despite some clueless fool's assumption that print is dead. From a purely economical standpoint, the webzine is the cheapest, with a yearly subscription starting at $6. A newsstand buyer has to cough up $5.99 an issue, or $71.88 a year. Yeah, we really like those guys, so don't tell 'em that a subscription to the print mag can be had for as little as $12 a year, and right now that includes a free hat even we don't have access to! Also, you can get back issues through our website for only $6 each, in case they run out at the store. Whichever way you choose, it's a bargain for what you receive. If you need to save some paper, try the online version, but regardless, let us know your thoughts!