Creative Ways to Recycle Old Books

The environment is a very big concern these days. The last several years have given us a ton of exciting developments in terms of technology and such, but this has all come at a pretty big cost to the environment. All the wonderful things we’re able to do with our computers and smartphones are great, but we also need to be making sure that we’re leaving the ecosystem in good shape for the generations that will be coming after ours. At some point within the last decade or so, humans seem to have collectively realized that we weren’t doing such a great job of caring for the planet. As such, we’ve all started to take environmentalism a little more seriously, on both an individual and societal level. Huge corporations are working to make their practices more environmentally-friendly and sustainable, and are also working harder than ever to develop products that will help everyday people live their lives in more sustainable ways. Similarly, people just like you and me are looking into ways that they can live their lives with a little more thought put towards the environment, and upcycling is a huge part of this. Over the course of the last few years, one of the most important realizations that we’ve arrived at is the one that we need to be producing a lot less waste. Since we can’t really go back in time and un-produce the waste that already exists, many of us have dedicated ourselves to figuring out how we might instead put it to (brand new) good use. And so, upcycling was born. You can upcycle just about anything, and books are one of the best candidates. If you’ve got a ton of old tomes lying around, we’ll talk about a few good ways you can put them to use.

Books can be transformed into a ton of things — all you’re likely going to need to create something amazing out of your old books is a bit of creativity and some of the right tools. Paper art is obviously one of the biggest creative endeavors towards which old books will readily lend themselves. If you’ve got a few old books lying around, you can grab that exacto knife and create any number of adorable things — from cute shapes that you can string up on a garland to something like an adorable paper vase.

You can also stack and paint books to create colorful little splashes of life in any room. All you’ll need to do is secure your stack with glue or some kind of adhesive, and then simply paint over old books. Something like this goes nicely on an end table or bed stand, and is great for simply adding a little bit of life to your favorite room. These days, there are a ton of ways to find textbooks for cheap online, but the real problem presents itself when you’ve got all those extra books just lying around. With these strategies in mind, you’ll have no trouble at all finding ways to make use out of your favorite old books, and have your home looking wonderful in the process.