What To Do With Old Edition Textbooks
ERICA GREEN
Many students find themselves in a dilemma at the end of a semester when bookstores will not buy back their textbooks. Students paid hundreds of dollars just months before, and now they cant recoup any of their money. However, there are other options, but students must be mindful of a few key items. During the semester, students must keep their books in good condition. At the end of the semester, students must diligently pursue all options and not settle on the most convenient.
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Ways To Get Rid Of Your Old Textbooks
Every semester, students are confronted with many necessary evils, one of them being the outrageous price for textbooks. Unfortunately getting textbooks is unavoidable unless you happen to get lucky and find a PDF online . If this is not an option for you, then you are forced to consider some alternatives: renting used, buying used, eBooks, or if you must, buying new.
While we as students cant avoid purchasing textbooks for the semester, we dont have to be suffocated by piles of old textbooks at the end of the year we can do quite a few things with them! There are three main options you can consider when wanting to part ways with your old textbook friends: donate, sell, or recycle.
Have you been staring at a pile of textbooks, not knowing what to do with them after your semester ended? Worry not, I got your back. Check out my comprehensive guide below on how to get rid of your old textbooks and potentiallyput a little cash back in your pocket!
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Donate Books To Local Schools And Daycare Centers
Some schools have plenty of books, and other schools are scrambling to find any books for their student bodies. Talk to the schools in your area to understand their needs. If they need books, donate your books to local schools or daycare centers.
Some schools accept a wide variety of books while others are more particular about the titles that fill gaps in their book collections. As with donations to your local library, be mindful of the needs of the school or daycare center. Provide books that help them fulfill their missions without overflowing their bookshelves with books that dont meet the needs of their students.
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Donate Books To Local Literacy Programs
Many local literacy programs accept donations, and local literacy programs vary from place to place. For example, Laundry Cares sponsors a laundromat literacy program. This organization helps laundromats set up reading corners in their spaces. The laundromats often accept donated books for children to take home or read while visiting the laundromat.
I think this program is particularly novel. It makes sense to me that children of families using laundromats might be more likely to have fewer books at home and benefit from building their home libraries through book collections at their local laundromat.
In Chicago, I regularly donated books to a secondhand bookshop called Open Books. This organization used proceeds from the bookshop to support their literacy programs for students throughout Chicago.
There are many similar literacy programs that are funded by or use book donations in their programs, so do your best to find the literacy programs in your area that could use your books.
Why Do We Need Solutions
The amount of waste generated from old textbooks is astounding. I bet you were not expecting those kinds of numbers above, right? Not shocked, read this: According to this article published by Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Protocol in 2018, we have fewer than 18 years remaining before the landfills in the United States are at capacity. Some of those landfills may reach their limit in half of that time. These findings demand a response and change of behavior in our purchasing and discarding of books.
Recycling textbooks can greatly improve our waste problem.
As mentioned above, while the waste is not only from books a significant amount of items in landfills come from discarded books. Each book disposed of in a landfill adds up quickly. The United States is already exporting waste to other countries. These reasons alone should cause pause before throwing anything away, especially books.
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Old Books Can Be Donated To A Book Drive To Get Rid Of Them
Many organizationslocal, state, national and even worldwideaccept donations of unwanted books and either donate or hold book sales to raise funds for their organization. Check your phone book and local bulletin boards to see if any places are accepting donations of used books. Consider donating to churches, schools, daycares, libraries, shelters, correctional facilities, or literacy foundations. Worldwide, there are relief organizations that can redistribute books to schools lacking funding to purchase any. Just be sure that the right kind of book goes to the right place. Dr. Seuss Hop on Pop may not be right for a local correctional facilitys education program, and Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs may not be right for Susans Sunshine Daycare program.
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Creative Diy Projects Featuring Recycled Old Books
Many people have old books in their homes. They are usually books that you either bought a long time ago and that got outdated or that you needed at some point for college for example and became useless after that. Those books do nothing but take space which you could use for something else. But what to do with those books? Well, you could just throw them out or you could use them for a fun and creative projects. We have lots of ideas for you to choose from.
Where To Donate Books
Donating used books is also a great alterative to selling books. If you just have a few books to donate or dont want to deal with the hassle of resale, considering donating books in your local community or to a larger organization that supplies books to underserved communities around the globe.
There are many options to donate used books. Ive organized the book donation options below by ease of donation and local proximity. Its often easier to donate books in your local community. However, there are many worthy recipients of books around the world who will benefit from your donations if you dont have a local donation option or have a special connection to a national or international program.
When donating used books, be mindful of the condition of the books and their relevance. If books are outdated or in poor condition, they wont be any more useful to the recipient than they were to you .
As a general rule, if you wouldnt buy the book or give it to a friend due to its condition, it might not be great for donation either. Most books that are dirty, moldy, damaged, are missing covers or pages, or have lots of writing or markings in them wont be useful to the donation recipient. Here are more than 25 places to donate books.
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What To Do With Old College Textbooks
Have you finished your college career and do not know what to do with your old textbooks? Maybe your new apartment cannot contain all those pretty heavy books taking up all the space. If you do not plan on keeping them, you have several options you can take.
Primarily, you have four options to consider. Lets go through them.
What To Do With Old Textbooks
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As a college student, you will undoubtedly collect knowledge. Along with this knowledge, you will collect textbooks. You will likely spend a fair share of your money buying books for school, but once youve passed the class, what is to come of the used textbooks? Knowing what to do with old textbooks can help you either get save money and/or assist a future student.
There are a variety of options for how to recycle and reuse old books. Lets take a look at some of the best resources for where you can donate, resell, or reuse old textbooks.
Additionally, if you want to get creative, there are some ideas for what you can make out of textbooks!
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Is It Better To Buy Or Rent Textbooks
Whether you choose to buy or rent textbooks depends on your needs. If youre strictly looking to save some extra cash, renting is the way to go, since its much cheaper than buying outright. However, renting does come with some stipulations. For one, you usually cant write in your textbooks , so its not the best option if you prefer to make margin notes in your book.
Renting versus buying college textbooks also depends on your specific course. If theres a textbook that you know youll be referencing or using again, its probably better to buy the book most rentals expire at the end of the semester. This is especially true for STEM majors, where technical textbooks may also be useful during your career or graduate school.
If youre required to take a class that has a virtual textbook, youll also most likely need to buy instead of rent, since these textbooks often have a one-time access code.
If you do have to buy a textbook, consider buying a used book. While it wont save you as much money as renting would, used books are considerably cheaper than new ones.
What To Do With Old Textbooks In 2021
As a student, you will face several necessary evils every semester. One of them is the monstrous price of textbooks. Unfortunately, acquiring books is unavoidable. But knowing what to do with old textbooks can either help you earn money or support a future student or even both. The choice is yours!
You cannot avoid buying textbooks for each semester. But you do not have to be suffocated by mountain loads of books at the end of each year. There are a few things you can do with them. Fundamentally, you have three options to consider if you want to get rid of your old textbooks: sell, donate, or recycle.
This article will show you what to do with old textbooks exploring the three basic options. At the end of the article, you will know how to effectively utilize each of them.
Lets get into it.
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Turn You Phone Book Into A Pen Organizer
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Phone books used to be a must-have but now nobody uses them anymore. So why not turn your old phone book into something useful? You can turn it into an organizer for your desk. First cut the book down to size. Then start forming the loops. Separate the pages of the book evenly into 5 sections. Then roll the spine up tightly in the middle. Place a pencil the center and use plenty of glue. Youll also have to cut out the ends of the pages so they form a straight line. Do the same thing for the other loops..
Prison Libraries & Literacy Programs
Do you want your old books to make a real difference in someones life? Try donating to literacy groups serving incarcerated populations, called books-to-prisoners programs. Use the Prison Book Programs master list to find groups operating in your home state, such as Books Through Bars, which services Pennsylvania and the surrounding area.
Not all prison literacy organizations are tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, so check with potential recipients if youre counting on a deduction.
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Get Rid Of Books By Re
While it may seem tacky at first, give this idea a shot. I mean, Im not suggesting it as a gift for a formal wedding or anything, but something thoughtful and non-traditional for any old occasion. Also, it works well when youre broke. So consider buying a big jug of red wine and wrapping it together with your old copy of Gone With The Wind for your friend that just lost her job or got laid up. Send a box of tissues and that tattered copy of All Creatures Great and Small to a friend that just lost a pet. Books can often provide more entertainment, comfort, sentiment, and distraction than a couple of flowers that will wilt in a few days. Plus, you can just pluck a book off your shelf instead of trying not to wake the Doberman sleeping in your neighbors garden.
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Make A Chandelier From Book Pages
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For example, you could make a book page chandelier. To make it youll need lots of paper circles. You can make them using a circle punch and you can do 5 or more pages at a time. If you want, you can also use other shapes as well. Then youll have to attach the paper circles to strings with glue. Then use strings to make the actual chandelier..
How To Find Cheap College Textbooks
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Sell Used Books To Local Independent Bookshops + Half Price Books Stores
If you want to sell your books in the most environmentally-responsible way, start by selling old books in your local community. Contact a local secondhand bookshop in your area to see what they accept and how they offer compensation. Consider both independent bookshops and chain secondhand bookshops like Half Price Books. Both could be great options for selling some of your best used books.
Bookstores are most likely to accept current books in good condition that are popular for resale. This makes sense, of course, because they need customers willing to purchase your old books if they buy them from you. However, you never know what the bookstore needs until you ask. Its worth a shot to bring your old books into the store and see what you can sell.
Many secondhand bookstores provide cash or store credit in exchange for your books. Some stores offer a premium exchange rate if you accept store credit instead of cash.
Also, some secondhand bookstores prefer if you schedule an appointment so they can review your books when they have time. Others accept walk-in consultations during which time they review the books to determine which they can accept and then provide an offer to you after their review. Call ahead to ask about their policy, and hopefully, you can earn some spending cash by selling your old books.
Where To Find Cheap College Textbooks
With school costs reaching all-time highs and student loans becoming a major issue, cutting costs wherever you can is essential to making college affordable.
And thanks to some ingenuity and research, you can definitely find college books at a discount.
First and foremost, skip the school bookstore. Schools charge premiums, and because many students dont realize they have options, they hand over their money for overpriced books.
Instead, check out these alternative online marketplaces to get the cheapest college textbooks, whether new, used or rentals:
On some of these sites, you can also sell your used textbooks to make some money back at the end of the semester.
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