Every year, huge numbers of books become unwanted. They are cleared from homes, or left over in charity shops or simply replaced by newer editions. But an unwanted book is not necessarily a waste book.
In fact, research for the Publishers Association found that most people already recognise this. When asked what they do with books they have finished, 34% said they pass them to friends or family, 33% donate them to charity shops and 12% sell them online. Only 7% said they throw them away.
That is encouraging, because books have one particularly valuable environmental quality - they can be used again and again. Think about everything that has already gone into producing a book. Trees, textiles and other raw materials have been used to make the paper. The book has been printed and bound, transported to a warehouse, delivered to a shop or customer and eventually found its way onto someone's bookshelf. Throwing away a usable book means losing all of that embedded value.
Reusing it is different. A pre loved book needs no new printing to become somebody's next book. It simply needs to find another reader. This isn't just a nice idea. Reuse is an important part of reducing waste because it keeps existing products in circulation for longer reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, energy demand and depletion of resources.
It is a wonderfully simple principle books that can still be read should be given an opportunity to find another home.
One Book at a Time
Saving one unwanted book might not feel like an environmental achievement. But imagine that principle being applied to hundreds of books from a house clearance or thousands of books from charity shops, and ultimately millions of books across the country. A book doesn't become worthless simply because its first owner has finished with it. There is another reader, another bookshelf and another chapter in its story. Because the greenest book isn't necessarily a new book made from more sustainable materials, sometimes, it's simply the book that already exists.
Books deserve a second chapter. Let's help give them one.
