How To Recycle Books: A bookworm’s guide
For bookworms, getting rid of some of their old books is totally a nightmare. We never want to lose those old connections that we made with them. There are so many emotions involved with them.
However, there are times when you might think of recycling some of the old books to make space for new ones or any other necessary reasons.
In this article, we’ll guide you on how to do it. We’ll try to make sure you don’t have to lose those old connections and make it done in an eco-friendly way.
It’s always heartbreaking to get rid of old books to welcome new ones. But sometimes, it is practical thinking. It’s good that you will buy new books to expand your knowledge. Even if you are not considering purchasing new books, there could be many possible reasons, like moving to a new home or apartment.
And now, you are thinking, how to recycle those old books instead of just throwing them away!
To recycle books, you can always donate or resell them to a marketplace. Also, there are several options to recycle those books through recycling services. However, we recommend looking for donations or reselling first as you will spread more knowledge by doing that.
Before we move on to further details, you have to decide which books to recycle! It’s always good to consider those that are not useful anymore.
Our pro strategy would be to looking for e-books for those specific hardcopies. You can check out Amazon Kindle for unlimited collections.
Reading hardcopy books is always fun and insightful. Just holding the hard copy can give you a different feeling.
Although it might seem natural. In reality, we cut millions of trees every year to make paper.
According to the University of Michigan, An estimated 30 million trees were cut down last year to produce textbooks.
If we can shift our demands from using new books to old books, that would be genuinely beneficial to our environment. That’s why recycling books is a great practice.
Now, let’s dive deep into all the recycling options and talk about them.
Recycle Books by Donating
When you donate a book, you create an opportunity for a new reader. Thus you can spread education and make the bond stronger with you old books, As you always know that your books are now helping someone.
Donate to a Local Library
Most of the local libraries accept book donations. To find a local library, you can first google this search term: Library near me.
Once you get the list, you can contact them to know if they are accepting new books. In most of the well-known libraries, you can even expect perks if you donate so many books!
Donate Books for International Goodwill
On big-books.org, you can donate books to help people through their service. Their purpose is to recycle books discarded by the old users and put them in the new owners’ hands.
You can directly visit their site to know more about how to donate books using their site.
Donate to Better world book
It’s now easier to donate your old books on Better world book than contributing to a library directly if you are located in the United States. Betterworldbooks.com is committed to the cause of literacy, and they believe every person should have a chance to achieve their potential. They are also committed to the sustainability of the planet!
You can directly visit their website to check out how to donate books. Check out here to see if you have a book drop off box nearby services.betterworldbooks.com/individuals/
Donate to Books For Africa
You can donate your books through Books For Africa, especially to those who might need help. Booksfroafrica.org has been doing this great work and shipping books to the African continent.
They have specific criteria and requirements before you donate. Check out their official website to know more about this.
Donate to Books To Prisoners Program
Books To Prisoners is an excellent organization through which you can donate your books to the prisoners. This organization is one of many “Books to Prisoners” groups in the US, Canada, and England. If you are in one of these countries, you can donate your books and show your support!
Check out prisonbookprogram.org to know more about the program.
Donate to Kids Need To Read
Kids Need to Read was founded as a nonprofit corporation in 2008 by PJ Haarsma, Denise Gary, and Nathan Fillion. Their vision was to encourage quality education to those children with disadvantages by providing books. By immersing children in an integrated educational world, it’s their goal to make the planet a better place.
Visit Kids need to read to know how you can donate books there.
Contributing to Salvation Army USA
www.salvationarmyusa.org accepts used hardback or paperback books, and you can check out their website to find a nearby drop-off location.
Donate Books to School/College
This is another idea that you can try to donate books. Suppose you have so many academic books that are not needed anymore. In that case, you can always donate them to a nearby school or college library.
As you know your academic books better, you would know which department library to reach out to. If you don’t see any departmental library, you can reach out to any public school or college library nearby.
How to Recycle Books as Gifts
This is a creative way to donate your existing old books. You can use them as gifts and send them out to your friends, families, or neighbor’s children.
Let’s check out few steps to make it easy for you!
Find People with Similar Interests
This step includes recalling memories that you had with your friends, families. Let’s say your best friend loves to talk about green energy, and they want to know about the topic more.
You can see if you had an old book on green energy that your friend always wished to read. If you have, that’s awesome!
Creative design for the book
You could use your art and craft skills to design the book’s cover if torn out. You can use eco-friendly or recycled materials to create that book!
Plan an occasion
Once you are done designing, decide on a particular day to surprise your friend with the book!
Recycle Books by reselling
Sell on Book Scouter
Bookscouter.com is a great marketplace where you can sell, buy or rent books. But remember, they will pay you based on the demand. So sometimes, you might have a stroke of tough luck. But, it’s always worth reselling as someone can read and gain knowledge.
Sell in a Book Exchange Store
Many book Exchange stores or offline book marketplaces might offer you a great deal or trade-in program.
For example, one new book in return for five old books.
First, you can google this search term: Book Exchange store near me to find those stores.
Next, you can contact them and know information about their exchange policy!
Sell on Facebook
Facebook is our top recommendation as it gave us the best result, and we noticed the same for other people!
1. You can just post a feed post on FB to let your friends know that you are selling particular books. Feel free to add descriptions, pictures and tag the interested people.
2. Facebook Groups: FB groups are always a great way to go. First, you can try to find groups having similar interests in your book’s category. Next, contact an admin of the group to know if you can post an advertisement. And then post on the group only if the admin approves it.
3. Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Marketplace is relatively a new feature, but it works like a charm. While listing products, you can notify your friends as well. To know more about it, please check out how to sell on Facebook Marketplace.
Recycle Books using Recycle Services
If you have no donating or selling options, we would recommend using recycling services. However, we should consider this after donation and reselling.
Nowadays, you have so many recycling services nearby. Usually, they take both books and magazines as they fall them under mixed papers. Although mixed papers have lower commodity value than newspapers, most paper mills can recycle mixed papers easily.
Things to remember before preparing for Recycling Services
1. Make sure you are only sending out paper items. If it has a plastic cover or similar type of material, make sure to recycle them separately.
2. You can easily recycle paperback books, but for hardcover books, you need to remove the hardcover as it contains non-paper materials.
3. If the papers have gotten wet and the condition is too poor, it’s better not to add them to the regular book recycling process. When the paper dries after getting wet, it manipulates the fiber. Paper mills also don’t pay for damp paper as they are heavier because of the water weight.
4. Some recycling services might not accept the papers if they are too old, approximately older than 20 years.
Book Recycling Process
Paper mills use specific machines to use water and chemicals to break the papers into fibers. Thus any ink or front-most layer are removed.
Next, they send them to make new products once the papers are rolled and dried. As they broke down the papers into fibers, they can’t make a similar product with the same material. Usually, they use those papers for toilet paper or coffee filter production.
Where to Recycle Books
The best way to look out for a local book recycling service is to google using the search term: Book recycling services near me.
At the top of the search result page, you can see some of the services near you are listed. You can contact them to know more about their service.
Exchange your old books
Exchanging books are another excellent way to go if you just want to read new books in exchange for your old books. This method is eco-friendly, as well as promotes sharing knowledge, and is beneficial to both parties.
There are so many book exchange websites. We are listing down a few of them!
1. PaperBackSwap: It’s straightforward to use. List the books that you’d like to swap with other club members. Once the book is requested, you can mail it to the club member. Next, you can choose from 1M+ available books.
2. BookCrossing: You can register your book for free and get your unique BookCrossing ID. Using that ID, you can track your book! Once someone finds your book, you can note all the records on BookCrossing.
3. BookMooch: First, you can add your books on Book Mooch. Once someone requests it and you mail it to them, you will receive points. Using those points, you can order books that are added by other people.
Conclusion
It’s always a great idea to think of recycling books. Not only is it eco-friendly, but also it makes it possible for you to spread the knowledge. We are so happy that you are thinking about taking this action. This will definitely contribute to the betterment of the environment.
