What should I do with old books I want to get rid of?

Question

Some of them are legal study books which are out of date. I'd like a green solution please.

Answer 1

offer them on ebay for a penny... buyer collects

gtive em to oxfam, or any charity shop

Answer 2

Getting Rid Of Old Books

Answer 3

Often times, it is hard to find a source to take old books. many libraries are unequipped to take any donations and used book stores are often full up. If you have old textbooks, there are a few options. several times a year, textbook salespeople visit colleges and universities to collect antiquated textbooks (and they pay). They do this to cut down on the use of outdated textbooks in the classroom and to encourage schools to require new versions thus creating a demand for the publisher. You can always bring the books to their respective departments within a college or university and they will help you.

If you cannot find a home for the books, recycling is always a good bet. In order to recycle books, you must do a couple of easy things. If you do not have multi paper recycling where you live, you might want to take the books to a university or large business that has sorted paper recycling. With paperbacks, remove the glossy covers and recycle them with other glossy paper. The pages can be recycled with the regular paper. With hardcovers, remove the covers and place them in the cardboard recycling container. If the pages are glossy, place them in the glossy container. If not, place in the regular bin. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Maybe you could find out if any nursing homes or rec centers in your area could use them. Or sell them at a yard sale? Where I work we have a book exchange table in our break room, people bring in books they don't want any more and they are free for the taking for anyone that wants them. That way lots of people get to enjoy them. If you don't have anything like this why not start one?

Answer 5

There are specialist collectors of books with particular themes, for example a guy with a bookshop in Worcestershire who is renowned for his collection of old books relating to canals.
A good book is never out of date - it has historical value to a collector and to someone who preserves books as part of our history.
Try advertising it on e-Bay (sell it for just the postage if you like) - at least you know it is going to someone who wants it.
Charity shops are OK for the popular novel, but a lot of their books eventually end up in a bin, when a casual buyer has finished with it.

Answer 6

Donate them to a library, if the library can not use them they will either send them to a recycle place or sell them to a place that stocks private libraries with books by the foot. The people who have such libraries do not ever read them so out of date does not matter.

Answer 7

there are several possiblities- the usual donate them to charity and sell at a yard sale
but there are other things... ask your nearest law library whether there are places that try to keep at least one copy of all old law type books for research purposes. if they do donate them to that place

for unneeded unwanted books - talk to your local crafters and see if they can use them for altered books-- in fact if you are into crafting try that yourself i understand it can be fun- they could be donated to a local nursing home or school for such a project.

rj

Answer 8

Sell them at a book fate. Higher a stall. All the left over books aft ha that donate to a charity shop.

Answer 9

depending on the nature of your books, most schools will take them. We've collected about 10,000 books to establish a library in a school where kids needed it. Public libraries may also take them. Ask around and you will get several suggestions. Good luck

Answer 10

I am an avid bibliophile. My personal library is larger than the local public libraries. I buy books at used book stores, and thrift stores all the time.

A used book store is not going to be interested in purchasing out of date legal study books. They know perfect well they will not sell.

A thrift store is most likely going to dump out of date legal study books directly in the garbage. They get donations of thousands of books which for whatever reason, they know will not sell. Of course then the thrift store must get rid of those books at their expence.

If you had worm bins, you could being ripping pages out of the legal study books and feeding them to the worms. They would munch them away into compost nicely.

I do a lot of craft and scrapbooking projects. One of the items I purchase are books with printed music. I can neither read, nor understand the printed music. I do however use the sheets in all kinds of craft projects, for an interesting background. Are your legal books written a bit like a dictionary? Would they give visual interest to the background of craft projects?

Do you know anyone that enjoyes paper mache? Sometimes I dabble with paper mache. I prefer ripping up old books, like your legal study books. They don't get ink all over my hands, like newspaper does.

You can try any "FreeCycle" group (on the web) to give those books away to crafters. At least then they will be going to someone who wants them, and not into the trash.

Do you have a paper shreader at your house? You can shread the books a few pages at a time (I know a long proccess) and use them to help mulch your garden area.

Do you have a shead, shop or garage? Is it insulated? Books provide pretty good insulative properties (not great, but fair). You can spread them out in an attic space for their insulative properties.

Bind, or strap several books together VERY tightly. Now take a drill, and drill holes about 5 inches deep and in varrious drill bit sizes from 5/16 to 3/8. You now have a home for native orchard mason bees. They live from Mexico, to the entire U.S., up into Canada. If you live in another country, do some study on your native bees. I'm willing to be you have ones that nest in holes like that.

Attach a wood board, or a piece of plastic to the one end of the books. This it to keep the rain from rotting the books immediatly and destorying the mason bee larva.

Male mason bees cannot sting, female almost never do. They polinate more plants with a tremendously better rate than domestic bees (domestic bees polinate with 3% efficency, mason bees with 97% efficency).
Best of all you are helping our native wildlife and plants.


For other books however I would of course donate them to thrift stores. Out of date legal study books however have little to no interest of vaule to people book shopping.

I hope some of these ideas help you.

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 11

Donate them to charity shops and or second hand book stores they are always looking for books what may be old information to you may be new to someone starting off .