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Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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Brooks127
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Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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I'm sitting here, enjoying coffee, taking a break from work, and the thought went through my mind. Is it ethical to recycle books? I mean, to send them out to the paper mill, grind them to a mushy pulp, and make paper sacks, toilet paper, or perhaps more books with them?

I also wonder if its okay to burn books and use the ashes for my garden, but that's just a thought, not something I plan to do. :)

Any thoughts.
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heledd
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Re: Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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If you are nit happy with those options why not send them to the US based Books fir Africa? We received a few boxes from them for iur library. Villages here often have no printed books or illustrations. http://www.booksforafrica.org/
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LyndaO
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Re: Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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In my town there are places to donate books and that's what I end up doing with mine. Whenever the shelves need to be organized I cull the flock and send them off to who-knows-where to be read again by new eyes.
The term 'book burning' these days (in the 'free' world) means forbidding or restricting access to information. There are so many ways to get your info now besides physical books, I don't think burning the occasional paper back would chap anyone's behind. What happens to to all that sy/fy fantasy stuff anyway? And all the cheap romances? They languish underneath beds and sofa cushions and beside lawn chairs in the rain. Might as well fertilize the roses or the garlic beds with them.
But tossing an early Isaac Asimov or Arthur C Clarke would be sacrilege. A Little Golden Book from the 50's, a Sacred Text handed down for many years, any book that's been invested with meaning because it taught you something or belonged to someone you respect -- some small god would surely rise up and smite you, your conscience probably.
In some places they need all the info they can get and good literature is a gift at anytime so as Heledd says, donation is the thing to do.

Here in the USA everything is available in mass quantities though there are Americans who are unhappy with that.
Books really are sacred things and symbols of the freedom we have right now. I don't know if I'd burn any book although I have, in anger, fired the occasional tome into the trash.

The author Richard Ford was asked to review someone's book, I don't know who's book it was...Mr. Ford didn't like it, took it into his backyard, fired a bullet through it then sent it back with out further comment. Just a bit of trivia...
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Re: Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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Dexter

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Re: Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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Ethical? I don't see the problem. If you want to donate them, great. If you want to wipe your butt with them, who cares?
tyler89
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Re: Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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I have absolutely no problem with this because recycling is not the same as burning. The book gets reused through the first process and destroyed through the second so I don't think they are comparable and people should have absolutely no ethical problem with this. Just look at the millions of metric tons of paper recovered through recycling across the world: http://www.statista.com/statistics/2783 ... d-regions/
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Re: Would you consider book recycling to be as offensive as book burning?

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I guess it would depend on the rarity and content of the book... It's one thing to recycle an old paperback with multiple subsequent editions. It's another thing to recycle a book that was only ever published once or twice and which is hard to find. Of course, if the book isn't considered valuable I don't think anyone would care very much if you destroy it.
Recycling a "useful" book in arguably decent state, an old text book or a scientific journal for example, instead of giving it to someone else who might use it could be considered unethical. You're aware that the book is highly useful and that there's certainly someone who could use it, but you don't care and recycle it anyway.

EDIT: Beyond whether it's ethical or not, I guess I'd say it's desirable that you pass on any good books you don't want.. Either sell them or give them away. There's always people in need of a book.
Last edited by VMLM on Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
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