Unplugged Living

Recycling By The Book

by Noel on August 20th, 2008

Each one of us reads quite a number of books in our lifetime. And come to think of it, there are some books that we just purchase and never had the time to read. And we start to think what we should do with them. Should we just throw them away?

Well, here are a couple of tips on what we all can do to recycle those old books:

1. Throw a book swap party. Get in a few bottles of wine (organic and fair trade of course) and get together your friends, family or neighbors for a book swapping party. You can make up ‘rules’ if you wish, or just let people dive in and help themselves.
2. Donate your books to your local library. You can feel great knowing your old books will be read by hundreds more people.
3. Take them to your local charity, thrift or goodwill shop. Profits raised from your books can help other people benefit from a better life.
4. Donate on Freecycle. You might even find yourself a like-minded friend from your neighborhood in the process!
5. Sell them on Green Metropolis. If you’re in the UK, you can sell your books on Green Metropolis, which donates money to the Woodland trust for every book sold.
6. Sell on the Internets. Make some money on eBay, Amazon or in a second-hand bookshop.
7. ReadItSwapIt. Do as the name suggests, and ReadItSwapIt. You’ll meet a virtual community of people who want to read your book and swap their own. Paper Back Swap offers a swap site for U.S. readers.
8. Become a Book Mooch. BookMooch offers a similar system, but instead of swapping, you earn ‘points’ for every book you give away, which you can use to ‘buy’ other people’s books.
9. Set your books free. BookCrossing is a wonderful idea — you just leave your books on a train seat, in a restaurant or at a hotel for a new reader to find! You can ‘tag’ your book with a unique code and follow your book as it travels across the world.
10. Share the love. A local hospital or hospice would love to take your old books from you for patients to enjoy.
11. Educate others. Take children’s books to a local school and specialist textbooks to a local college or university.

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POSTED IN: Conservation, Education, Green Lifestyles, recycling