We’ve got too much stuff and not enough room — in our homes, in our neighborhoods, on our planet. Some of us get it – realizing that recycling our stuff needs be an integral part of our lives in order to sustain our natural environment. Sadly, however, too many still don’t get it — tossing the burnt-out blender, the ten-year-old paint and the Big Screen TV package into the closest garbage destined for squalid landfill immortality.
In honor of Recycling Day, here’s a list of books that provide tips and encouragement for the dedicated recycler and also offers some consciousness-raising gift ideas for those friends and relatives who still don’t get it.
Books About How To Think About Our Stuff
Recycle Everything: Why We Must, How We Can (2010) by Janet Unruh
This book urges thinking beyond current recycling methods that merely slow down the rate of consumption and reduce the amount of materials flowing through the system. With 10 years experience working with manufacturers from design to the factory floor, Unruh creates a new model in which materials move through production, consumption, and recovery in a never-ending cycle, rendering them 100% recyclable. In her system there’d be no dependence on extraction of raw materials nor would used materials ever be thrown away. View a slide presentation of her ideas.
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late (2004) by Thom Hartmann
Kindle version
In clear and simple language, this book details what’s happening to our planet, the reasons for our culture’s blind behavior, and how we can fix the problem. First published in 1998, it has become one of the handbooks of the environmental activist movement. This updated edition magnifies its focus on political activism and its effect on corporate behavior. It also served as a source of inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio’s web movie Global Warning.
Recycle: The Essential Guide (2006) by Lucy Siegle
This book tackles everything from the emergencies of resource depletion around the globe to what you and I can do to reduce waste in our homes. Case studies from all over the world pay tribute to exceptionally successful or innovative approaches to recycling.
The Art of Recycling in Kenya (2009) by Annelise Della Rosa, Richard Leakey (Preface), Gabriella Gilli (afterword).
In many poorer cultures, largely because of scarcity and basic need, recycling has long been considered as natural an occurrence as breathing. In some instances, it literally is the life-breath of a country. In this fascinating book, we discover the inventive genius of the Kenyans and their life’s art of recycling — shoes from discarded rubber, a knife grinder from a bicycle wheel, and a clock made from old flip-flops are just a few examples of their sustainable alchemy.
Books About What To Do With Our Stuff
Eco Craft: Recycle Recraft Restyle (2011) by Susan Wasinger
Recycling Projects for the Evil Genius (2010) by Russell Gehrk
Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts (2009) by Leisure Arts staff
1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse: Remake, Restyle, Recycle, Renew (2009) by Garth Johnson
Kindle Edition
These four books all feature projects that expand the usefulness of paper, plastic, cans, glass, clothing and other recyclables. From clever transformations — glass baby-food jars become quaint candle chandeliers – to cutting edge large-scale works of art, each book in its own way is an inventive how-to on creating new, environmentally friendly items from old junk.
62 Projects to Make with a Dead Computer: (And Other Discarded Electronics) (2010) by Randy Sarafan
This book deals with the stuff we really don’t know what to do with — old cell phones, broken printers, tangles of cables and wires to god-knows-what and, of course, the dead PC. The author, a Parsons design graduate, achieves a healthy balance of art and technology in these 62 geek-chic projects. Whether an iMac Terrarium, a laptop Digital Photo Frame, or a power strip Bird Feeder — each project comes with complete, step-by-step instructions,
Always A Bridesmaid: 89 Ways to Recycle That Bridesmaid Dress (1999) by Rebecca Whitlinger
Perhaps this pick offers a somewhat narrow focus, but since I’ve got seven of these in a rainbow of colors jammed into the back of my closet, well… “Sure, you’ll be able to wear it again.”
Books For Kids and All Their Stuff
Recycle This Book: 100 Top Children’s Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green (2009) Dan Gutman (Editor)
Kindle Edition
For ages 8 and up – Essays from renowned children’s authors such as Ann Brashares, Jeanne DuPrau, Caroline B. Cooney, Bruce Coville, Gennifer Choldenko aim to inform and inspire kids to understand what’s happening to the environment and to do something about it.
The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling by Alison Inches, Pete Whitehead (Illustrator) (2009)
The Adventures of an Aluminum Can: A Story About Recycling by Alison Inches, Mark Chambers (Illustrator) (2009)
I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by Alison Inches, Viviana Garofoli (Illustrator) (2008)
In collaboration with talented, whimsical illustrators, writer Alison Inches has put together these three storybooks that both entertain and enlighten kids about the need to reduce, reuse and recycle.
PS from ecoLit
Most of these books are available for download to the ecologist’s new friend — the Kindle, iPad or other electronic media.
But what to do with all those old friends on the bookshelf?
For those books that you can bear to part with – recycle. Donate them to your local library, second-hand stores or to a great non-profit called Reading Tree. Its simple, effective mission targets two serious problems: scarcity of books in disadvantaged areas and excess books thrown into landfills. Since 2007, Reading Tree has distributed over 4 million recycled books to schools, libraries and children.
