City of St. Louis
Department of Streets
Refuse Division
Recycling Program

Book Reuse and Recycling

What You Can Do

NOTE: The following information is also available as a downloadable PDF Flyer or Word Document.

REUSE

Although you may be done with them, your used books could be valuable resources to someone else. Rather than placing them in the wastebasket, consider contributing them to an organization that can reuse them. Inquire with schools, churches, youth groups, senior centers, or local charities. You may also find a second home for your books at thrift stores, consignment shops, or secondhand stores. The following list includes nonprofit organizations or events that focus on reusing books:

books American Library Association
Web: http://www.ala.org/ala/alalibrary/libraryfactsheet/alalibraryfactsheet12.htm
Phone: 800.545.2433
Address: 50 East Huron, Chicago, Illinois 60611
Notes: The American Library Association provides a list of organizations that collect books for distribution either within or outside the United States.

A Thousand Books
Web: http://www.athousandbooks.us
E-Mail: donatebooks@AThousandBooks.us
Phone: 314.255.9035
Address: c/o Tony Renner, 4735 Lewis Place, St. Louis, Missouri 63113
Notes: “A Thousand Books’ mission is to obtain and distribute new and clean, serviceable used books to school and community libraries in foreign lands. Since English is a common language of culture, commerce and education, A Thousand Books believes it is important to provide English language books to students in other countries to develop a more mature, deeper and well-rounded exposure to our language. Books are plentiful and inexpensive in the United States, but books in the English language are scarce and expensive in many other, less economically developed countries. A Thousand Books obtains books through direct donations from individuals and companies. We also seek funds necessary to mail them…We are operated by a volunteer board of directors, and volunteers who solicit books in addition to the tasks of sorting, organizing, packing and shipping them.

What Kinds Of Books? Picture any book that would be appropriate for a junior/senior high school student. Books should be in good shape and of fairly recent vintage. Multi-volumes, such as Time-Life Library sets, nature books, classic literature, juvenile novels, art books, travel guides, dictionaries . . . (no 15-year-old encyclopedias, please). Hardbound and paperback are both fine. In fact, a good mix is best.”

school book Adopt A Library (or) Adopt A School
Web: http://adoptalibrary.org (or) http://www.adoptaschool.org
E-Mail: AdoptALibrary@aol.com
Notes: “…to promote world literacy, to help and encourage donations to libraries and schools in the U.S. and around the world, and to keep books out of landfills!...This website keeps books and magazines out of landfills by encouraging people to donate used books and library equipment to schools and libraries around the world. AdoptALibrary.org does not ask for or accept donations - all donations go directly to libraries and schools, or organizations that aid them.”

BookCrossing
Web: http://www.bookcrossing.com
The "3 Rs" of BookCrossing...
1. Read a good book
2. Register it (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!"

child with books BookMooch
Web: http://www.bookmooch.com
1. Type in the books you want to give away.
2. Receive requests from others for your books.
3. Mail your books and receive points.
4. Ask for books from others with your points.
There is no cost to join or use BookMooch; your only cost is the postage to send your books to others.
You can also give your points to charities, which can then use those points to acquire books through this network.

Greater St. Louis Book Fair
Web: http://www.stlouisbookfair.org
E-Mail: stlouisbookfair@gmail.com
Notes: “If you wish to donate 3 or more boxes of books, please call (314) 993-1995 to arrange for a book pickup. You may also drop books off at the Macy's loading docks at Chesterfield, Crestwood, Galleria, South County and West County, or at the Book House (little gray house) located in the parking lot behind the parking garage at the corner of Forsyth and Jackson.

Hands Across the Water
Web: http://www.surplusbooksforcharity.org
E-Mail: literacyforall@yahoo.com
Notes: They accept hard or soft cover book donations (NO MANUALS). For a fee, arrangements can be made for large quantities to be picked up. "Our goal is both the promotion of conservation and reuse principles here in the USA and literacy and education globally. We promote responsible reuse internationally of the many fine books we collect from schools, libraries, publishing houses and individuals in the USA. We provide the books we collect to needy schools, libraries and other community based nonprofit organizations overseas."

Jewish Community Center books
Web: http://jccstl.com
E-Mail: webmaster@jccstl.org
Phone: 314.432.5700
Address: Carlyn H. Wohl Building, 2 Millstone Campus Drive, Creve Coeur, Missouri 63146
Notes: They have a dropoff area where they accept book donations during building hours (call for hours of operation). For large quantities, their Maintenance Staff can help unload books. They do not accept encyclopedias, magazines, or text books more than 2 years old.

Missouri Civil War Museum
Web: http://www.mcwm.org
E-Mail: jmaurath@mcwm.org
Address: 222 Worth Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63125
Notes: They accept any books or artifacts related to the Civil War. Contact them to discuss delivery or pick-up.

Paper Back Swap
Web: http://www.paperbackswap.com
E-Mail: rpickering@paperbackswap.com
Address: 3651 Peachtree Parkway, Suite E-390, Suwanee, Georgia 30024
Notes: Post books you no longer want. When someone orders a book you've posted, you mail them your book (you pay postage, as do they when you order a book). For each book you send to others, you receive 1 credit, which you can use to order another book for yourself.

Paperspine, Inc.
Web: http://www.paperspine.com
E-Mail: support@paperspine.com
Phone: 866.916.7323 (READ)
22525 Southeast 64th Place, Suite 249, Issaquah, Washington 98027
Notes: "Online book rental service; Choose from over 150,000 titles; Fast, free shipping; No long-term contract; Plans start from $9.95/month." You create a list of books that you want to read, they mail to you the books on your list, and you keep the books as long as you want. When you're finished, mail the books back to them and they'll send out more that are on your "to read" list.

Ready Readers
Web: http://www.readyreaders-stlouis.com
E-Mail: donations@readyreaders-stlouis.com
Phone: 314.991.1903
Address: 9378 Olive Boulevard, Suite 213, St. Louis, Missouri 63132
Notes: "Ready Readers is a volunteer program for at-risk pre-Kindergarten children. We read aloud to them and give them new books to help inspire them to want to learn to read. We also give gently used picture books to the children's teachers, whose classrooms often lack good read-aloud books. Last year, we gave 3,000 gently used books to the neediest preschools. We also use good donated books for our high school readers, so that they will have books on hand to read to the children."
Books should: be for children under 5 years old, have pictures that are big enough for 10-20 children to see, be read aloud in 5 minutes, be new, like new or very gently used, not have religious themes. Please call to arrange a book drop off.

YMCA Book Fair
Web: http://www.ymcastlouis.org/carondelet/bookfair
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Downtown Marquette Branch - 1528 Locust, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, Phone 314.436.4100
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Carondelet Branch - 600 Loughborough Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63111, 314.353.4960
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Monsanto Branch - 5555 Page Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63112, Phone 314.367.4646
Drop-Off Address and Phone: South City Branch - 3150 Sublette Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63139, Phone 314.644.3100
Drop-Off Address and Phone: West County Branch - 16464 Burkhardt Place, Chesterfield, Missouri 63017, Phone 636.532.3100
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Wildwood Branch - 2641 Highway 109, Wildwood, Missouri 63040, Phone 636.458.6636
Drop-Off Address and Phone: South County Branch - 12736 Southfork Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63128, Phone 314.849.9622
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Emerson Branch - 3390 Pershall Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63135, Phone 314.521.1822
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Mid County Branch - 1900 Urban Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63144, Phone 314.962.9450
Drop-Off Address and Phone: Edward Jones Branch - 12521 Marine Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63146, Phone 314.439.9622
Notes: They will accept drop-off donations of books from March through July 31st (their fundraising book sale is held at the end of August).

RECYCLE

Central Paper Stock Company Incorporated
Web: http://www.paperrecycler.com
E-Mail: marty@paperrecycler.com
Phone: 314.521.8686
Address: 6665 Jonas Place, St. Louis, Missouri 63134
Notes: Outside of their offices they maintain a container where books can be dropped off free-of-charge.

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