A friend in Seattle (Mark is his name) introduced me to an inspiring publisher from Argentina that uses cardboard from the carteneros, men, women and children who scavenge cardboard and resell it to survive. This publisher, Eloisa Cartonera, pays five times the going rate for the cardboard and uses it to make covers for its books.

Mark heard about them from artonpaper (don't get too comfortable; the article cuts off halfway through and recommends that you buy the magazine). If you read Spanish, you'll get a lot more out of the publisher's website than I did (man, I wish more publishers would take good pictures of their books, like Craig's almost X-rated book porn).

It's refreshing to see publishers come up with innovative, inexpensive ideas. Us small fries need more of these to survive.