At Planet Earth Recycling used books are given another life, whether that’s finding their way to a new reader or being recycled into a new material.
For twelve years the West Kelowna, B.C. recycle depot has accepted books as part of its service. Now its president, Paul Marois, has partnered with the Regional District of the Central Okanagan as part of a pilot project to keep even more books out of the landfill.
“Recycle BC does not as part of their program accept books of any kind in their recycling stream so, that means no books in your recycling carts and garbage carts for that matter,” said Rae Stewart RDCO waste reduction facilitator. “We were trying to provide a more convenient means for residents to get rid of those books.”
At Planet Earth Recycling books are sorted into two categories, ‘Good Books’ and ‘Bad Books’.
“Good books are ones that could possibly go to our reseller and bad books can’t be resold,” said Marois. “Things like damaged books, encyclopedias, we chop the spines off of those because there’s glue in the bindings and covers. So that part goes to the garbage but we can at least recycle the paper of the pages.”
Stewart says that since the pilot project started in April, the program has saved thousands of books from ending up in landfill. Now, the program has been extended until December. Until then the six drop-off locations at Okanagan Regional Library locations in Lake Country, Kelowna, West Kelowna and Peachland will continue accepting books.
“Thus far in the program we have already removed 14,000 kilograms of books from the stream and the numbers we think are going to continue to grow until the end of the year,” said Stewart.
If your books are not damaged or outdated, you are asked to donate them to a not-for-profit second-hand store. If they are you can drop off the books at the following locations.
- Downtown Kelowna Library branch on Ellis St.
- Mission Library located in the Capital News Centre
- Rutland Library in Plaza 33
- West Kelowna Library in Westridge Mall
- Lake Country adjacent to Library inside the Municipal Hall
- Peachland in the Village Mall
For more information about the book recycling program visit www.rdco.com
Comments