Book Recycling

We are a family of readers and book hoarders.  There are books in every room -- overflowing from bookshelves and night stands and elsewhere.  Every once in a while we go through a shelf here and there and try to find a few we can part with.  This past weekend our county's land use department held a book recycling event -- it was a joy to behold!  Book lovers from throughout the community came with boxes of books they no longer wanted and left with some great used books.  From what I understand, the unwanted books at the end of the event were recycled instead of thrown in the landfill -- excellent!

So what if your community doesn't have an event like this?  Well, you could get one started, but there are other alternatives.  We also have a local used bookstore and they take used books and give you a store credit in return.  Or you can sell books to Powell's online.  I've done this before and the process was seamless. 

I'm sure there are other responsible ways to depart with books you no longer want.  I'd love to hear other suggestions!

Comments

[Christie]

A few years ago, I heard about people who would leave books in public places, post where they left them on the internet and you could, in a reasonable amount of time, go and find the left book. Then the picker-upper would post that they had found it, could read it and re-release it back into the wild. I wish I could remember the name of the website. There were a lot of books left in and around airports. ;]

[Beth]

I've grown fond of paperbackswap.com for getting rid of old books... only problem is that is seems to bring just as many new ones in.

[Nicole]

You can also try out your local Half Price Books. I work in one and we try to recycle as much as we can of books that don't make it on the shelves. And you can make some cash.

[--Deb]

You KNOW I'm trying to read the titles on those books, right??

[Spare Ribbon]

Very earth friendly.

[Brandon]

For any books that might have some value, you could try out BookScouter.com to compare prices from used-book buyback sites. It checks about 30 sites - including Powells - to see who is buying your book and how much each of them are paying.

[Vicki]

That sounds like such fun!

And sakes that girl has grown!!

[Pete]

Christie, that site is Bookcrossing.com. I actually tried it for a while several years ago, "released" seven books but had none of them "caught."

[Cynthia]

I love paperbackswap.com too. Love it Love it Love it. This weekend I got my first BookCrossing book. Thanks for reminding me to enter it!

[Sarah]

You can always freecycle books too, freecycle.org.