I manage the recycling at work. Once a week or so, I bag up all the cans, plastic and glass walk next door to the supermarket and cash in the bottle deposits. Little did I know that Massachusetts doesn't require deposits for all recycle-able bottles and cans. So, I'm always left with a pile of recycle-ables that I feel guilty just throwing away. These nonredeemable recycle-ables end up in the backseat of my car.
Sometime last week, I was walking down the street in Brookline and realized that everyone's recycling was out on the street. So I grabbed the bag of nonredeemables from the car and set out down the street to add it to someone's pile.
At the corner of the street, I found the perfect spot--a large plastic recycling can, complete with a lid. I popped the lid opened and found a whole garbage can full of books. These books were not torn or unreadable; these books were not missing pages or water damaged. There were history books, ranging from Japanese civilization to Israeli political structure; there were children's books, classic children's books with the gold binding; there were popular paperbacks including Harry Potter, The Scarlet Letter, and Tom Sawyer.
I couldn't believe it. The library was recycling perfectly readable books. It's sacrilege!
Suggestion Time
This question seems pretty obvious, but I'd love for people to participate in this:
What could the library have done with the books instead?
1) Donate the books to charity;
2) Hold a fundraiser;
3) Craigslist--curb alert even!
Your turn!
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