Donated Books Tossed into Dumpsters

[inezalea]

Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[Barry]

I don't know what the solution is.
Seems like a Free rack would be a good place to start. And if no one wants them for free then its time to recycle them.

[jryeo]

My father was a librarian (not sonoma county) for 20 years. Donated books left over from booksales went to the dumpster; the friends of the library really had no other option.

Of course, "value" is in the eye of the beholder. A priceless book to you or me could be worth pennies to the general public. These books likely are destined for the recycle bin unless the right person comes by.

Any book that can be resold online for a profit gets snatched up quickly by resellers armed with barcode scanning PDAs, both at library booksales and at thrift shops. Some libraries have banned barcode scanners at booksales, however the last Sebastopol book sale I attended was a desparate race against resellers.

[Sciguy]

Barry:
The problem and the trap is always the same when it comes to this crazy throwaway society's fascination with discard.

Do not attempt to find solutions within the reigning paradigm of discard. They don't exist.

I have long proposed an entirely different way to design books (and clothing and all the other things that go into thrift shops) so that their lives do not terminate in dumpsters and frustrated inability to find new users.

I wrote all about it in my book, Getting To Zero Waste. I could go into it here, as I have often done before, but instead, I'll let other people come up with solutions to the conundrum you are raising. They can probably dream up better social and product designs than anything I've thought of.

Remember, design a different way to think about it all.

Paul Palmer



Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[Hot Compost]

Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

...

What do other people think?

i have a retired professor friend in San Francisco who had a huge library of history books and decided to give them away while he was still able to function normally.

it ended up being 80+ boxes of books. my part was helping carry them down to the basement.

there eventual destination - SF City Library.

there's also a good used bookstore in SF at Fort Point. they live entirely on donated books and have a great collection - mostly history books.

there's another bookstore named Modern Times on Valencia in San Francisco; also mostly non-fiction.

both the SF City Library & Modern Times have meeting space for public lectures etc.

i would separate the books into fiction & non-fiction and send the non-fiction to one of the bookstores in SF, where you can be sure they will be appreciated & re-sold.

with some books it's like going to Salvation Army where they have 20 copies of Top Gun and 20 copies of Happy Gilmore - there are some media that just don't sell. the same has got to be true with books.

if you take the used books to a knowledgeable used book seller, they can usually sort them into "useful" and "not useful".

one other place is Catholic Homeless Shelter at 7th & Morgan in Santa Rosa. to some homeless teenager, some old fiction book that seems dumb to us might give them a week of pleasure.

[Barry]

Any book that can be resold online for a profit gets snatched up quickly by resellers armed with barcode scanning PDAs, both at library booksales and at thrift shops. Some libraries have banned barcode scanners at booksales, however the last Sebastopol book sale I attended was a desparate race against resellers.

I would suggest banning barcode readers for the first part of the sale and then invite them to scavenge after the public has had first pick, and then make everything free/donation.

[The A Team]

I also donate to Friends of the Library, SR Central Branch. They made something like $38,000 at the last sale. The funds go to needs the library has to function... so what could be a better? It is tirelessly run by a small group of women, who volunteer daily, they are truly amazing.

:recycle:
Thanks,
Andrea

[Big Bob]

The library also tosses out huge amounts of very fine, often first edition collectavle books, into their dumpster. A friend was luck enough to dumpster dive and get many fine books one time.

Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[zephyr]

How about donating your books to the schools? The Analy H.S. librarian loves receiving all kinds of books for the students.




Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[cardamon]

From someone who volunteers at Hospice, maybe I can provide a different perspective. Some of the books that are donated to us are stained, sticky, dirty, etc. Those are what is thrown out. In contrast, the books we do not sell at the store, after a few months are shipped to Africa for schools there.

I would like to say that we never throw things out, but that isn't the case. Next time before you donate something look at it. If it has stains, rips, and holes chances are no one is going to buy something you wore out. Some things are meant to be reused in other ways, recycled, or then at last resort thrown out.

[typewriter]

I have a couple comments to add....

1.) I don't know whether this is true but someone told me that many thrift stores throw away many childrens books & toys due to concerns about lead poisoning...

2.) Like the previous poster said, people who donate (while, yes, doing a great & important service) are also responsible...there is often this "I don't want to deal with it" mentality so everything goes into a box that then goes to the thrift store to deal with, regardless of the quality.

This doesn't actually help the thrift store if the hours spent to sort through this mess cost more in wages, etc. than the items are actually worth. Also, establishments such as used book stores are often better equipped to handle a large inventory & make books accessible at low prices than a thrift store (b/c books take a long time to sort through & shelve, they take a ton of space, and their resale value in turn is very low. Without an inventory system making them accessible to customers is reliant on the customer time/willingness to stand and look at a bunch of disorganized titles).

I encourage people to use resources like freecycle, CL Free section, swaps, trading, etc. along with, yes, some time dedicated to taking responsibility for your own crap by determining it as such before passing it along...

[daynurse]

The state health department came to my favorite second hand baby store and had them remove all used clothing and toys and books because of "lead" dangers.
>1.) I don't know whether this is true but someone told me that many thrift stores throw away many childrens books & toys due to concerns about lead poisoning...

One brave soul ran a "free media" store in West Marin for a couple of years. He sold some of the donated books online to pay the rent. The community actively participated and many who would otherwise not have access to major and minor literature benefited. However, it wasn't successful.

I'd like to suggest we approach our favorite coffee houses and ask them to put in "free" bookshelves for this purpose.

There must be other options... I love books and there are so many children who never get access to books of their own. There has to be a way to get the books to them.

Any suggestions??

Peggy

[arthunter]

I also volunteer at Hospice and I price and stack the books there. We get great donations of books ( thank you ! ) and in return we provide a great selection to our customers at the best prices in town.

We are quite willing to sort through mixed boxes of books but we can't sell the following:

Text books ( you can resell them at the school where you bought them )

Damaged books - covers torn or missing, pages ripped, water damage, etc.

Moldy books - no one wants them and the smell will spread in the shelves.

Totally outdated books i.e. economic strategies from 1975

Store Catalogs - it's surprising how many of these we get

Outdated magazines like Newsweek from a year ago

Visually explicit erotica - not the place for it

Personally, I save and display every single book that I can, but there are exceptions and this is what you see going into the dumpster. I am only one of 5 who work on the books so standards vary slightly with each person.


From someone who volunteers at Hospice, maybe I can provide a different perspective. Some of the books that are donated to us are stained, sticky, dirty, etc. Those are what is thrown out. In contrast, the books we do not sell at the store, after a few months are shipped to Africa for schools there.

I would like to say that we never throw things out, but that isn't the case. Next time before you donate something look at it. If it has stains, rips, and holes chances are no one is going to buy something you wore out. Some things are meant to be reused in other ways, recycled, or then at last resort thrown out.

[KellytheSinger]

I am so sick of the chip, chip, chipping away of our freedoms.
Camera on every street corner, Reverse Homeland Security (rule by fear), cowardly presidents, corruption rampant in every government department.

I suggest we all boycott everything for one week.
We have lost control of government....elected officials have no respect for the public or their needs.
We need an act of legal rebellion to show we are
capable of acting as a group.
Everyone should boycott everything on January 3rd, buy nothing go nowhere.
everyone just stay home on January 3rd to January 8th and watch our
government officials change their ways.


The state health department came to my favorite second hand baby store and had them remove all used clothing and toys and books because of "lead" dangers.
>1.) I don't know whether this is true but someone told me that many thrift stores throw away many childrens books & toys due to concerns about lead poisoning...

One brave soul ran a "free media" store in West Marin for a couple of years. He sold some of the donated books online to pay the rent. The community actively participated and many who would otherwise not have access to major and minor literature benefited. However, it wasn't successful.

I'd like to suggest we approach our favorite coffee houses and ask them to put in "free" bookshelves for this purpose.

There must be other options... I love books and there are so many children who never get access to books of their own. There has to be a way to get the books to them.

Any suggestions??

Peggy

[theindependenteye]

>>>I'd like to suggest we approach our favorite coffee houses and ask them to put in "free" bookshelves for this purpose.

Hard Core Espresso has "free" shelves -- books, often, or clothing, games, apples, squash, anything that fits. We've put books there often, and taken some good ones as well. And it's fun, each visit, to see what people have left.

-Conrad

[inezalea]

Ancillary to this topic for people who love books, yesterday's New York Times has an opinion piece, followed by a lively thread, on the process of culling books from one's own personal library.

Books You Can Live Without - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com (https://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books-you-can-live-without/)

[RussianRiverRattina]

This thread is both fascinating & illuminating. Thanks for all the information & perspectives from you all.

[jryeo]

I suggest we all boycott everything for one week.

I'll boycott this boycott.

[Sciguy]

I must say, this question about used books has brought out some interesting and innovative ideas about used books that I wouldn't have thought of myself.

I offered a challenge in this field which no one saw fit to take up. So all of the responses were solidly in the camp which takes it for granted that it is the proper (or at least unchangeable) fate of books to be used once or twice and then discarded. All of the responses concerned what to do with the discards. No one even addressed the question of how to change the system in which book reading-publishing-buying-reselling operates. What happened to all the original thinkers in this town and on this bulletin board?

Obviously electronic books like Kindle are changing the face of book reading and may someday replace books entirely, no matter what you may think of that. That's a system change which eliminates discard of books but introduces the discard of book readers. But that isn't my thing.

What I have long suggested is that every book have a Radio Frequency Identification Tag (RFID) built right into the spine. These devices can hold lots of information such as the complete description of the book, even perhaps its history, its many (not just one) descriptors and perhaps even a sample chapter or page. A reading wand, passed over the book will read the information automatically. When I suggested this in my book, I was alone, but since then a Belgian distributor has begun to add them post facto to each of his books, an expensive job for him. The cheap way would be for the publisher to bind the RFID right in. RFID's have come down so far in price that they can be had for a penny apiece.

So what good would an RFID do for excess books? We have all seen the jumble and chaos around discarded and used books that make it to a thrift shop or those other places that have been suggested here. Of course no one can afford to label and sort these books the way a library does. But with RFID's in them, the books could be placed unsorted on shelves. Then a clerk could walk down the aisle with a wand, reading all the titles and descriptions into a computer as she goes. The computer could then use standard book sorting software (open source!) which would arrange the titles into a database and publish the list on the web. Then the shop would have a complete, up-to-date list of all the books it owned, and anyone in the world could search for a desired book and find out where it was located around the globe. Surely this would increase the reutilization of used books. They could be searched by author, publisher, year or descriptor depending on the sophistication that the software attained. And we would not have to read in these pages about first editions and valuable books being placed in a dumpster, just because someone can.

The trick is to get around the business model used by discard shops of every kind today, including recycling centers and thrift shops. Today they rely entirely on the clever customer who knows all about the items for sale (especially for anything technical). The shop itself, quite unlike the retail store it competes with, has only the most primitive notion of what it is selling. The RFID application could contribute to upgrading the history and application of every kind of excessed article, including prominently clothing.

While the suggested uses for discarded books put forward here were really inventive, and comforting for those of us who revere books, it is Zero Waste which is needed to redesign systems so that discard, garbage and dumping are not the standards against which all reuse is measured.

Paul Palmer
www.zerowasteinstitite.org




Ancillary to this topic for people who love books, yesterday's New York Times has an opinion piece, followed by a lively thread, on the process of culling books from one's own personal library.

Books You Can Live Without - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com (https://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books-you-can-live-without/)

[KellytheSinger]

OK. Why would you boycott this boycott?


I'll boycott this boycott.

[Karen]

www.sonomacountybookmobile.org (https://www.sonomacountybookmobile.org/)
recycle your used books through the bookmobile. It will redistribite them 4 u.

[Jude Iam]

Via a friend's friend... woweee~ TERRIFIC FREE BOOKMOBILE !


www.sonomacountybookmobile.org (https://www.sonomacountybookmobile.org/)

sooo cool - pass it on.
a great place to donate your books!







Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[adamhadm]

Good job donating your books-that's quite unfortunate you have found some in the dumpster. At the library-I often see good books in the blue recycling bin which is difficult-used to grab a few and leave them by WHOLE fOODS AND they'd be picked up. I do think the library tries to sell 'em though-not sure. Gppd luck whatever you do. Books are made to be read!


Via a friend's friend... woweee~ TERRIFIC FREE BOOKMOBILE !


www.sonomacountybookmobile.org (https://www.sonomacountybookmobile.org/)

sooo cool - pass it on.
a great place to donate your books!

[Tecumseh525]

At the Windsor Library there are two dumpsters to the left of the entrance that are enclosed in a cinderblock with metal doors that face the parking lot. I've seen lots of books thrown away in there...

[Jude Iam]

hey all -

i would like to make it clear that THIS BOOKMOBILE is not the Public Library's. This one GIVES AWAY THE BOOKS FOR FREE, along with smiles and love.

Also, you can give books to Adult Detention Center 562 Russell Avenue, Santa Rosa M-F 8-5.

blessings, judith




At the Windsor Library there are two dumpsters to the left of the entrance that are enclosed in a cinderblock with metal doors that face the parking lot. I've seen lots of books thrown away in there...

[LADYWITHART]

:hello: Check out booksforpeace.org They donate books and build libraries in poor countries. The great photographer Ben Arnonoff in Santa Rosa is involved with them. His site is flickr.com/photos/fogline . On their site they describe what they are looking for and what condition they need to be in. Maybe you could save some of those books from the garbage and donate them too.
They also except used books at RECYCLE TOWN at the county dumps on Meecham Road.
Good Luck!
Suzanne
:heart::heart::heart::heart:


Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[LADYWITHART]

That's all. :wink:


>>>I'd like to suggest we approach our favorite coffee houses and ask them to put in "free" bookshelves for this purpose.

Hard Core Espresso has "free" shelves -- books, often, or clothing, games, apples, squash, anything that fits. We've put books there often, and taken some good ones as well. And it's fun, each visit, to see what people have left.

-Conrad

[nicofrog]

All Thrift stores discard tons of perfectly usable items daily.
They state many reasons, some valid,some not*(more greed related) and disallow dumpster diving for many fearsons few of them valid.:idea:


Up to a few years ago, books(the thick kind) were not allowed in re-cycle paper for some odd reason, I don't know if that is still the case
Books can be shredded and composted.


Books also make insulation.better than straw bales ,if you know how to encase them in clay..as do mylar plastics(potato chip bags) and tetra-pacs (soy milk containers) we are setting up demonstration projects to show this new tech. at Green Vally soon. feel free to donate your mylar to me.

I do not have adequate storage facility for books right now.Or I'd take them, and it takes a very powerful shredder to shred them for compost.

Feel free to contact me concerning many
creative re-use projects,please do not discard,,or "re-cycle"

Masonry of any kind
Wire like fencing
Heavy glass
Thick bottles
Colored Glass (Red,Yellow,Orange,Blue,Purple)
Marbles
Beads
Buttons
Bottle Caps
Lighters
Corks
Toys
Yard sculpture
Turned wood
Dowels
Tent poles
Fishing rods
Nails Screws, small hardware
I will store them and show you how to use them

:2cents: Nicolas :Yinyangv: 707 684 0341



Please don't get me wrong. VNA & Hospice Foundation Thrift Store on Gravenstein Highway North is my favorite place for donating to the needy, as well as for foraging for clothes, toys, furnishings, what-have-you; and the volunteers who work there are lovely.

But, I have been told, and seen firsthand, waste-disposal bins laden with books routinely emptied into the dumpsters behind the store. Having brought in over the years endless bags of high-quality books just as easily sold to Copperfields, or donated to the library, I wonder how many have gone directly to the dumpster.

I don't know what the solution is. I always take a quick look at the books when I'm there, and it's amazing, the times I've found the very title or author I'm looking for, or a writer I like very much, at almost give-away prices; so it would certainly be a disappointment to lose the joy of making these discoveries.

Lately, I have been bringing books, piecemeal, to the table at the Sebastopol Public Library where donated books are sold for 50 cents or a dollar.

What do other people think?

[arthunter]

All Thrift stores discard tons of perfectly usable items daily.
They state many reasons, some valid,some not*(more greed related) and disallow dumpster diving for many reasons few of them valid.:idea:


As a volunteer for Home Hospice thrift store I have to respond to this.

Home Hospice only discards donations if they are in disgusting condition or if the sale of such items is banned by the current safety rules ( i.e. certain children's toys ). Our job is to make money for the dying members of our community and their families. Period. Why on earth would we throw away a donation which will help us to achieve that goal? How is it "greed related" to throw away a donation that no one wants to buy and that should have been thrown away or recycled in the first place? Honestly, this is just a headache for us and adds to our costs of doing business by increasing dump and transportation fees.

The members of this community have been wonderful with their donations and because of it many suffering families have had great free assistance in their time of need. I'm one of those people which is why I volunteer there. They were absolutely wonderful when my mother was dying and I don't know what I would have done without them.

Let's not forget the purpose for these donations, books and otherwise ...

and dumpster diving IS indeed dangerous and we are liable for your safety. You don't know what's in that dumpster, ...there could be broken glass, mold, etc.

If you want free stuff then go to the recycling center at the dump where you can buy stuff for very little. Or check out freecycle.org or the free listings on Craigslist.

If you are unsure about the quality of your donations then please come to the back door and ask us. We'll be happy to help you and if there's something that we can't use we will tell you that, leaving you free to find another home for it. This goes for the books too!

There's a reason that our thrift store is so popular, ... it's low cost and filled with good, usable items. If we weren't selective we'd soon lose customers as they grew tired of sifting through the useless junk ...

Thanks,
Rosanne

[Tecumseh525]

Agreed.


Seems like a Free rack would be a good place to start. And if no one wants them for free then its time to recycle them.

[justinbill]

The truth is those guys with the barcode scanners are answering the question of what to do with all those old books. They are developing a way to make a livelyhood from book reselling.

I would also like to point out that many books become worthless for several reasons, and keeping these in mind may help reduce the waste later:

badly written book.
irrelavant information due to time
fad book that then falls out of fashion.

Right now there are fewer copies made of books, and fewer places to buy them new. this is actually going to reduce the amount of books in circulation, and will increase their resale value.

Also, reselling your books quickly after use will increase the chance someone else will read it. way too many people hold on to books for years, then dump them because they aren't worth that much.