It seems like an obvious question, books are made of paper and we all have a paper and card kerbside recycling service don’t we? Hold up there, the answer might just be a little more complicated.
A surprisingly large number of books are not suitable to be placed into your paper and card recycling bin for collection due to the way that they are bound. Very few books are 100% paper or card, so you may need to remove the binding before recycling, or better still donate them to a charity shop.
What Should I Do With Old Books?
Let’s begin by talking about the best thing to do with old, unwanted books. If they’re anything but falling apart, there’s a good chance that they may not be ready to go to the literary scrapheap in the sky just yet.
Reuse Trumps Recycle
In fact, no matter what type of waste you’re talking about, there’s a better solution than recycling, and that’s re-use. Books are a particularly good example of that, and have the potential to do a lot of good, even if you consider them to be worthless.
A great way to give your old books a new lease of life is to donate them to charity shops. Books make up a sizeable chunk of virtually every fund-raising store that I’ve ever visited, and the contents of the shelves range from pristine books that wouldn’t look out of place in Waterstones window, to those that have clearly been loved over the years and provided many, many hours of entertainment.
By making a generous contribution to charity, you’re reducing the need to recycle and at the same time supporting a good cause. That’s an excellent gesture on both fronts.
Sell Your Books
If you fancy making a few extra pennies, then why not sell your books. There’s a few established ways to do that online, for example by listing them on eBay. Did you know that Amazon also offer second hand items too, so buyers can see a used item alongside new prices?
There are even dedicated websites that exist purely to connect buyers to people selling second hand books. A great example of this is We Buy Books. If you’ve got time on your hands and can do with a bit of extra cash then it’s a great solution – you can see what they’re prepared to offer you on the website.
For me, I’d rather pass them to a charity shop though, I like that warm glow inside you get from a selfless act!
Charity Recycling Sites
Back on the subject of good causes, it’s worth mentioning that in recent years an increasing number of recycling sites offer charity bins. These are most commonly looking for clothing and shoes, but books are getting more common too.
Next time you use a recycling site, make a note of whether your local facilities offer book collections to donate to charity, as this is a much easier way to drop them off unless you happen to be passing the charity shop anyway.
Recycling Books Is A Binding Problem
Sometimes though, it’s a simple case that a book has seen much better days and no longer offers the reader enjoyment. If that’s the case you find yourself in, and perhaps have pages falling out, then you may be tempted to throw them into your paper recycling bin along with cardboard and shredded paper.
If you thought plastic recycling was inconsistent, then books seem even more illogical. Of course, in reality there will be reasons for the rules, but for you and I in our homes, it can feel perplexing at best.
Some council areas take all books regardless of what they’re made up of, whereas others tend to focus on two things – the binding and the cover.
In essence, you’ve got four possible combinations:
- Areas that accept all books
- Areas that accept all paperbacks only (or hardbacks with the cover removed)
- Areas that accept all books with the bindings removed
- Areas that accept all books with the bindings removed, so long as hardbacks have their covers removed
Who would think a simple need for a book to be recycled could get so complicated?
To be sure, you could simply remove the inner pages from the cover and binding, but that could then mean you’re not recycling as much as you could be. Additionally, that’s a lot of effort if you happen to live in an area that would be fine with the whole book in the first place.
Some councils publish this information on the waste collection pages of their websites, however others are vague at best. I’d recommend picking up the phone in this instance and calling the council to find out. Look for a number for the local waste management team on your local authority website.
Types Of Binding
You might be thinking that the books you’re looking to dispose of are fine because there’s no visible binding like in the image above, but a much more common contaminate is adhesive. As books are subject to quite a significant amount of wear and tear as they’re read, they need to withstand all that page turning as you digest that gripping novel.
It’s not something we think about as we read, but the binding process has to be really strong to prevent pages from falling out half way through your first read. Yes, well loved books do disintegrate eventually, but the adhesives used do a remarkably good job.
It’s these sticky substances that mean that so many recycling services are unable to accept books in their usual form, so being aware of whether you need to cut off the binding or cover before tossing them into the paper bin is important.
