13 Ways to Recycle Old Textbooks
Books and magazines are an important part of our daily lives. However, when you buy them often they tend to pile up. Especially, textbooks after a semester it was used for becomes useless for most students to keep in their dorm. In this post let’s find out how to deal with old textbooks.
Is it okay to recycle old textbooks?
Old unwanted books like college textbooks you have piled up and you never read anymore take a lot of space. Recycling tons of paper saves around three cubic yards of landfill space, 380 oil gallons, 17 trees, and 4000 kilowatts of energy.
So yeah, to sum it up, it’s okay to think about recycling old unwanted books and magazines. But, making that decision can be harder for some. Because most of you will feel bad making a decision like this if you love physical books. There are ways to get rid of old textbooks without actually recycling them.
Here are 13 ways you could recycle old books and magazines without ever feeling guilty (other than actual recycling).
01. Give them to someone you know
It’s hard to find old textbooks for a cheap price these days, and there are so many people who are always looking for them. Ask around if there is anyone who needs the old textbooks or magazines you have.
There are college students who are looking to buy used textbooks to save a little bit of money. You can sell unwanted books to them at a reasonable price if you want. Also, you can give the books to them for free.
02. Donate to a Local Library
Bring the old books that you’ve used gently (has no significant damages) to your local library and donate them. Most libraries even accept old magazines that have some educational value.
But there are magazines that they won’t take; no worries keep reading you might just find another right solution.
03. Make Your Own Small Library
You could make your own free of charge small library for in your community or for your friends. There are more than 75000 small free libraries around the world. If you can make a little investment in this one, you’ll do an excellent service to your community.
04. Donate them to a Local Charity
Clean your used old books and put them in a box, then donate them to local charities such as Goodwill, Salvation Army. If you have a hard time finding a local charity, you might want to check on charitycenters.com to see if there are charities available in your area.
05. Give Away or Sell Them Online
There might be people who are looking for the books you’re going to recycle. To find people, you can use websites that sell used books such as craigslist and freecycle.
06. Hit the used book stores
Hardcover books are hard to recycle since they are made out of cloth or leather. If you have seen any used book stores in your area, you can take them there. After they inspect the book, they will come to you with an offer.
07. The “Free Books” Box
Find a public place that people wait, like a doctor’s office, bus stop, and put the books in a box and label it “Free Books.” Before you do this, you ought to take permission from the staff or the people who work there.
08. Donate Books To Inmates
Prisons are about punishing people for their crimes and protecting the public, but it is important to give them a second chance. You can help them do that by donating unwanted books.
But be careful though, there are some books you shouldn’t donate to prisons such as more than five years old books, magazines, books in bad condition.
09. Donate to “Books For Africa”
You could always donate your unwanted books and magazines overseas to people who need them. Nonprofit organizations like “Books for Africa” has donated over 46 million books for Africa since 1988 with a vision to end the book famine in Africa.
10. Ship Your Books to Veterans
If you have enough undamaged old books and magazines, you could donate them to veterans, active-duty soldiers, and their families to help their education.
There are organizations like “Operation Paperback” and “PickUp Please” that pick up the books you donate and send them to the veterans and soldiers.
11. Make Decoration Items
When you’re in a small room, you can use decoration items such as wall decorations, mirrors to brighten up your dorm room or home a bit. You could use your decoration items using the old books that you’re going to recycle. Just like the ones you made out DIY decorations from old phone books when you were a kid.
12. Repurpose Old Books
Other than making DIY decor items from the old books, you can repurpose them into something that’s useful to you, such as a pen holder, small bookshelves.
There are so many DIY projects made of old books on the web with clear steps if you’re like to make something other than recycling.
13. Recycle Your Books
When you couldn’t take any of the actions above, consider recycling the old unwanted books and magazines for good. No matter how bad you might feel, you’ll still do some good to nature by doing that.
In a Nutshell
Recycling old textbooks is the right solution if you have any lying around in boxes in your house or your dorm. But, rather than recycling them at a plant, the above methods will feel much more good.
There are so many websites you could find online to donate or sell those. Even though they aren’t useful to you anymore, it could be for someone else. You’re getting a chance to help someone else and also save up space in your room at the same time.
Sadie Gordon is an enthusiastic student and educator with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Wilmington University in New Castle. While managing her day job as a tutor – she writes for students and educators through SquaredMile to help them achieve the most in their student life while maintaining a perfectly healthy social life.
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