# Books into landfill **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014 "2021-09-20T19:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doofer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Doofer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doofer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/1 "2021-09-20T19:07:49Z")
Any bookstores in the Chicago area that will take technical books? I sure don’t need them anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/2 "2021-09-20T20:31:59Z")
(I would check the library first, they might know a college or prison or something. Unless the books are so old as to be outdated.) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/3 "2021-09-20T20:59:57Z")
I just moved out of my work office (work at home now). NO one will want ‘Learn Visual Basic 6 in 25 days’, so I didn’t try to stick the library with it. I recycled a lot of stuff. Paper. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/4 "2021-09-20T21:09:09Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > NO one will want ‘Learn Visual Basic 6 in 25 days’, so I didn’t try to stick the library with it. In another twenty years, post-Millennial hipsters will probably be totally in to learning VB6 and running a Windows 98 emulator on their Apple iNeuro implant or Google Glass+ (which they’ll never give up on…never!) And of course they’ll argue that “Print just has more fidelity than digital; you really get the sensibility of the author flowing through the paper.” I’m still kicking myself for having thrown away my TRS-80 CoCo manuals that are apparently now worth more than the machine itself. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/5 "2021-09-20T21:20:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > In another twenty years, post-Millennial hipsters will probably be totally in to learning VB6 Once I actually looked up a VB6 reference just so I could mess with some scripts for an old third-party program for an old game. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/6 "2021-09-20T21:32:35Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > I would check the library first If they’re like Portland, they aren’t accepting books during the pandemic. I’m trying to get rid of my entire Alaska library and having no luck. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/7 "2021-09-20T21:33:36Z")
A lot of libraries in big cities don’t accept books at all, it’s literally cheaper to order new ones than to curate and categorize old ones. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chicago public library didn’t accept books even before the pandemic. But the library might have partnerships with organizations that draw on technical books in the relevant subject. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/8 "2021-09-20T22:15:53Z")
The libraries around here, even pre-pandemic, don’t accept books for their collections. They do (did?) accept them for the “Friends of the Library” fundraiser, but even then not textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/9 "2021-09-20T22:17:30Z")
Technical books are the only ones I’ve been able to sell effectively. I got pretty good money for Cameron’s Hydraulic Handbook and even my 40 year old CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics sold fo what I listed it for. I got $20 for my Machinery’s Handbook and I bought it used in 1978 for $3.00. Of course $3.00 was a lot more in those days. I’d put technical books on ebay. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/10 "2021-09-20T22:31:00Z")
Our county library used to take donated books and have book sales outside of my office. But it was mostly fiction and cooking books and stuff. Stuff that really doesn’t get dated. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/11 "2021-09-20T22:32:43Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > In another twenty years, post-Millennial hipsters will probably be totally in to learning VB6 and running a Windows 98 emulator If they started learning [VB.net](http://VB.net) and Javascript, we might have someone to hire when I retire. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/12 "2021-09-20T23:42:18Z")
(FoL volunteer) We do pass certain items to the librarians for potential addition to the collection, but 99%-plus is not suitable, and we know it. The majority of it is also not suitable for our self-service bookstore, so it gets passed on to a reseller (Better World Books), local thrift stores, or it’s recycled itself if it’s not salable for whatever reason, usually because it’s had liquid spilled on it and/or has black mold. We also work with an auction house, and we’re starting to make preparations for my annual or thereabouts 100-mile drive to deliver a carload of items. I send some of my own things at the same time, so it’s worth it, and would be anyway. Items the librarians want to look at include this year’s books (and last year’s up until midsummer), DVDs, some CDs, and we’ve had collections donated that the librarians got dibs on, usually for reference, and then we got whatever was left over. If they can’t use it, we get it back. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/13 "2021-09-20T23:49:34Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I recycled a lot of stuff. Paper. This…why would the landfill even be a consideration? ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/14 "2021-09-20T23:54:14Z")
Laziness. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/15 "2021-09-20T23:56:20Z")
Books are mostly paper, but don’t sort well in automated recycling operations which depend on having paper behave like, well, paper and not as a chunk. Hardbound books are particularly difficult to deal with. Cutting them apart to separate the paper from plastic, leather, glue etc is a LOT of work … ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/16 "2021-09-21T00:03:44Z")
I’ve dropped off dozens of magazines VF, NG, Smithsonian, Hagerty, Handyman, NRDC, A local Ike’s sub, and more, at a county wide resource center/ thrift store/ Textbooks are next, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/17 "2021-09-21T00:05:37Z")
When I moved out of my office I had to think. Where will this go? Is this of any use to anyone? Now, I was lucky that the recycling and also a work dumpster was right there on the campus. But I made many trips to both. Had a hand truck and loaded up my 4Runner a number of times. Looking back at 29 years worth of stuff that I probably should have done better with. :shrug:. None of my co-workers wanted it. Nor did I. I faced it. A 20 year old book on GIS was outdated 18 years ago. Luckily, I didn’t have any DOS books left. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/18 "2021-09-21T00:48:59Z")
I don’t know of any recycling center that will accept hardbacks. Ours specifically says not to include them in paper recycling. Doing so just makes more work for them, because they have to cull them out or the entire batch is ruined. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/19 "2021-09-21T04:12:51Z")
You can donate them to [Open Books,](https://www.open-books.org/donate-books/) and even arrange for a pickup. Same with the Newberry Library Book Sale. But I’d encourage you to think rationally and clearly about whether anyone will actually want to purchase them, or if you’re just transferring the landfill duty to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014/20 "2021-09-21T06:09:46Z")
I’ve thought for years that textbooks are getting steadily more and more dumbed down over the years. Anyone who really wants to learn anything might actually prefer older textbooks. When I went back to college and took American History, the book was so dumbed down that I couldn’t even understand the “story line”; other students said so too. I went to the nearby University library and borrowed one of the older “real” American History textbooks by some of the famous real historian authors and studied that instead. I’ve got a College Algebra textbook that was sitting around the house when I was a young child (we’re talking early 1960’s) that I’ve kept all these years. It was published in 1948. I’m not selling or recycling that! I’m keeping it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-into-landfill/951014.md?page=2)