Books
- DO put them in curbside recycling
- DON’T include any metal or plastic spiral-bound books (remove spiral spine to recycle)
About These Items
Books come in all sorts of different shapes, size, covers and paper types but they can all be recycled as mixed paper through the city’s curbside recycling pickup. If the book has a plastic or metal spiral binding, remove this before recycling. This includes paperbacks, hardcovers, notebooks, etc.
While mixed papers like books are accepted curbside, it can be more valuable to the city if dropped off at one of the city’s various drop-off locations. (see below)
Donate your books to extend their life!
If your books are in good condition then before you put them out for recycling consider donating them to:
- The Carnegie Library
- Center for Creative Reuse (vintage books or books about arts/crafts/DIY) – an arts & crafts re-use store by Construction Junction
- Book ‘Em a non-profit organization based in Pittsburgh that sends reading and educational materials to prisoners across Pennsylvania
- Livy’s Library (children’s books) – ships age-appropriate books to Pittsburgh area children for FREE!
- Goodwill or other Thrift stores
- Better World Books – collects books at drop-off bins and uses sales to fund literacy work
- Amazing Books & Records – a used book store that will buy some books
- Your local school
- … or drop off at a nearby Little Free Library
Drop off to increase value.
While the curbside pickup recycling is single-stream (meaning, all recyclables are combined together), starting in summer 2019 the city’s drop-off centers will collect some items in a separate pick-up and send to a separate facility for sorting and recycling. This separation reduces contamination of recyclables and increases their value. Mixed paper, including books, is one of these items now being sent (at least some of the time) to a separate facility. So if you want your mixed paper items to have the best chance of being recycled and creating the most value, consider dropping off your mixed paper at one of these drop-off locations into the city’s mixed paper dumpsters. (Note that another of these separated items is shredded paper.)
When you drop off, the items are accepted in plastic bags. However, these bags will most likely be cut open and then discarded at the sorting facility, so consider using one of your larger paper bags for mixed paper (because it can also be recycled as mixed paper) or dumping your mixed paper loose into the dumpster.
Was this post helpful?
- If this information helped you, please tap "Yes" below and then feel free to leave a comment or suggestion.
- If not, tap "no" and then please tell us how it could be more useful!
