Apologizing for my lack of posting becomes quite repetitive after a while, doesn’t it?
Today I want to talk about a highly controversial topic: upcycling your books. To those who aren’t familiar with the term, ‘upcycle’ is a frequently used word borrowed from the DIY cache that describes the process of recycling a product so that it has more value; either monetarily or intrinsically.
For example, an old and abused wooden desk that is remodeled to look like new has been upcycled. In this example, it’s gained monetary value and is also more useful as an upcycled product. An example of a product that has been upcycled for intrinsic value, or value to the upcycler, would be the worn t-shirts that Bella’s mom quilts into a blanket for her birthday. This doesn’t increase the monetary value of the shirts, but it recycles them into a blanket that is now more useful to Bella than old t-shirts she wouldn’t wear.
Now, how does this apply to books? It’s hard to upcycle an old novel for monetary value. If you’ve seen the TV show YOU, you know it’s a rather difficult process. The book binding needs to be taken apart and covers must be replaced. It’s an entire ordeal that may drive you crazy enough to murder people. The process of upcycling books usually occurs in the same way Bella’s mom transforms her t-shirts; they are turned into some sort of display or object that makes them no longer usable as the original product. Are you starting to see why some people may be upset about this?
There is a belief among some of the book community that books are these sacred, hallowed objects. Using them in any way that makes them no longer readable is blasphemy. This is where I disagree.
A 2009 EPA report stated that approximately 640,000 tons of books per year were sent to the landfill. I don’t think the weight of that figure properly conveys just how many books that is. To make things clearer, I’ve done some math, and I’m going to include the entire process here so that my work is properly appreciated. Thanks for reading through my hard work, Sam.
A very rough average from reference.com that shows a 300 page paperback book is roughly 15.6 oz. Another website, avgpostageweight.com, estimates the average hardcover book at 31oz. To attempt to make things even, I’m going to average the two and use 23.3oz for my math.
With that in mind, let’s get crackin’. One ton is equal to 32,000oz. If we divide 32,000 by 23.3oz, we come to the conclusion that one ton of books is approximately 1,373 individual books. Still with me? Keep in mind, there’s 640,000 tons of books being thrown away. So, 640,000 tons multiplied by 1,373 books gives us approximately 879 million individual books. That’s a lot of books.
After doing all this math, I decided a quick google search for “number of books thrown away” might be beneficial. It turns out that there was a research paper written on textbook recycling that uses the same 640,000 ton figure to estimate how many books are being thrown away. The authors, Laura S. Hickey and Kristen M. Jones, estimate the average book to weigh 4lbs (64oz) which equates to 320 million books being thrown away. This is significantly lower than my number, and I would have had to do less math if I’d looked at their paper first, but sometimes that’s life. Either way, it’s still a lot of books.
Some of those books come from people who toss them out instead of donating them, but this accounts for only a small portion of books sent to the landfill. The majority of these books come from stores or publishing houses themselves. When books don’t sell, stores have a few options. They can send the books back to the publishers, donate them to donation centers or schools, or toss them out. Which of these options do you think is the easiest?
Plus, the books that are sent back to the publishers still have to go somewhere. Sometimes they are saved if it’s predicted there may be a rise in a book’s popularity. Other times, they face the same options as stores do: donate or trash. It’s an unfortunate fact of supply and demand, and why I’m a strong advocate of thrifting your books!
There is another problem to consider as well: donation centers can only accept so many books. At a certain point, they will have to toss out (or recycle, if they’re lucky) books that have been on the shelf for a while to rotate their inventory.
These are not factors that are often considered in the book community. Frequently, someone will post a picture of a desk made out of books, or a painting using old book pages as the backdrop, and they will be overwhelmed with (generally negative) comments about how they should use another medium for their products.
Destroying books is a sensitive topic for a good reason, but upcycling them is a different story. What these book warriors (and I do not use that term derogatorily) fail to consider is the fate most books must succumb to eventually. Is it not better to let books be given another life as a desk rather than be sent to the landfill to rot? Is it not better to see someone enjoy a book as a wall art than to see it in the trash?
In my opinion, it is completely acceptable to upcycle your books, especially ones that are old or damaged, for the purpose of giving them a longer lifespan. While it is likely many of these projects will end up in a landfill anyway, using things for a longer amount of time is proven to help reduce the buildup in landfills and overall reduce waste in the long term. Keep the creativity coming, upcyclers.
The Lit Wiz