Book Burning

[Pat32rf]

The time has come to declutter our house and we keep finding boxes of mostly hardcover books that we have been saving for over 20 years. Some boxes have been moved to their fourth home in 30 years.
We have two easy choices, #1 take them to be recycled at the dump. This costs us as taxpayers, OR pop them in the OWB and extract some heat from them.
Other than the sacriledge of burning books, is there any downside to burning a box a day or so?

 

[jb6l6gc]

Personally I would try to donate them somewhere. Im sure there is a used book store, or salvation army somewhere in your local. Such a shame to burn books.

 

[__dan]

Personally I would try to donate them somewhere. Im sure there is a used book store, or salvation army somewhere in your local. Such a shame to burn books.

I have been buying a ton of used books on Amazon through their independent sellers. Many sell for $.01 plus the $3.99 postal media rate shipping. Very good quality.

Anything glossy print and probably some of the books are treated with non combustible coatings. This would be obvious if you had a hot fire going and then threw a cardboard box full of glossy print magazines on top. Once the fire was out you would have to clean out the remaining mess before you could get another hot, well burning fire going.

Untreated paper and cardboard is good for starting fires, but if you want heat that's not going to do it.

So neither. Recycling most likely does not resell or remarket the book. May end up as complete waste. Burning it will add the waste of your time to the waste of the book.

Try giving them to an independent seller who can post them on Amazon, and if they have any market value the seller may make an offer to you.

 

[peakbagger]

About half of what you will be burning is non combustible filler, mostly clay and some titanium dioxide. They will burn but you will be hauling more ash. There is usually some good cellulose fiber so a recycling plant can recover the fiber. The leftover ash usually ends up in landfill sometimes as cover.

 

[maple1]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/burning-books-for-non-political-reasons.148096/#post-1991332

 

[jb6l6gc]

still why burn or recycle them, someone else may enjoy reading them. Either way seems wastefull to me, unless they are old textbooks or something that is out of date.

 

[Pat32rf]

Been storing some of these for over 40 years. Most of them are prewar with a few old Readers Digest Condensed thrown in. The 1904 encyclopedias will be saved....
We are in a small town with only a few second hand stores, tried them all.
Doubt that there is anything newer than 1960. I did get a lesson in making paper though....

 

[__dan]

There is a reader for everything. That is what Amazon used booksellers are for and they are very good at what they do. The older books in the time when publishing was a more expensive endeavor with lower return, the standard of becoming a published author was a lot higher. The quality of the writing and the insight contained may be and is a lot higher. And, older first person accounts of historical events may be their only version available anywhere. The publishers made the cut at a higher quality level, Reader's Digest included or even held as an example of a publisher scouring the authors for those who made the cut at a higher level.

Suggestion, pick an example title from your inventory and search Amazon for who sells the used copies. Then see who has 50,000 + positive reviews, and chances are they want your collection and will take good care in the process of getting them over to the next buyer. I have scored really well this way.