Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2010 Issue
To Reuse or Not to Reuse, That is the Question
It's hard to tell whether bubblewrap is new or used.
The other side of that is that Dustin Holland who is the VP for Acquisitions of Better World Books told me that in 2009, "We sold more than 4 million books. Books that are not donated or sold are diverted to recycling and we conduct an environmental audit of our recyclers. We recycle or reuse (up to 4 times) all inbound shipping material." But then, their Mission Statement on their website says: "Social and environmental responsibility is at the core of our business. You could say it's in our DNA," so we would expect them to do this, and I, for one, applaud it.
Jay Santini from Ballyhoo Books reuses packing materials, "…though I sort of wish I didn't have to. As others have mentioned, I like my packaging to be as spiffy as possible. But when I need to pinch my pennies and save some money on materials, I will definitely "leverage" an old box or bubble wrap, as long as they are still in decent shape.”
Chris Volk from Bookfever in California says she thinks some of the division between 'reuse and don't reuse' is not so much cosmetics as availability. "We are in a rural area with no trash pickup - we recycle all we can - but we mostly use new packing material for shipping books. Part of this is the impression we want to create, but part of it is practical, we don't get in enough single book boxes to even begin to cover our needs - and we have no nearby source of such material.
Though not exactly to do with packing, Chris offers a unique free gift wrapping. "This year we started offering customers a choice between reusable cloth and traditional paper - and not a single customer chose paper! Since the cloth is already being "re-used" (they started out as fabric samples, mostly edged,) it is doubly effective."
Cen Wells of Ish Kabibble Books in Hughesville, Maryland said "We don't, per se, use recycled materials. I would guess that 98% of our books are shipped using new boxes or envelopes and new, clean packing material." She explained that one of the reasons is that, like Chris Volk, they are in a rural area where it's hard to find used boxes. She also said 'dumpster diving' would be a waste of time, and that she feels her customers deserve clean materials. Usually they only use old boxes for shipments to Alibris.
Maggie Gammon of Commonplace Books in Princeton, Kentucky says, "I recycle as much as possible… reusing clean boxes, wrapping paper, air pillows, bubble wrap, and especially polystyrene peanuts for my collectible glass sideline. I know my small effort isn't going to solve the world's landfill problems, but I at least do what I can to reduce my contribution as much as possible."
A word from Arizona; Bob Maddox from Squid Ink Books in Tucson says; "I recycle when it is feasible to do so without appearing unprofessional. Cardboard boxes must be in quite good shape and with labels that can easily be covered over or left in place - otherwise these go into our local recycling bin for pickup. Bubble wrap is recycled as long as it can be un-taped without tearing - if it is torn, I try to save it for other shipping or packing needs."
Ted Kruse is the Associate Director for Technical Services and Budget at the University of Baltimore, so he's into "thriftiness." He says they try to salvage as much packing material as possible from the acquisitions group. They like unglued boxes that can be refolded inside out because they provide a clean surface for mailing labels and give the first impression of new materials.
