Charity shops pulping donated books (yet again)

[metalman]

Here's another thread about this - my original one about Oxfam doing it is here.

 

The latest culprits are the British Heart Foundation at the top of the Moor. While buying a computer book from there today, I remarked that it was a few years old now. The chap behind the counter said, "Yes, we don't get many modern books". This came as a bit of a surprise to me since the shelves are full of pristine new-looking paperbacks, so I pointed out that they certainly don't get any old books either.

 

He then told me that they have a bin downstairs which they fill up with all the old books, and they are then sent away for pulping because, and I quote, "they don't meet our standards". Customers don't even get a chance to buy them, they're just sent off to be destroyed. To me, as a book lover, this is nothing short of criminal, and of course I said so, but it was like water off a duck's back: it's their policy and that's that. Their 'policy' is evidently the same as that of the Bluebell Wood hospice shop on King Street, where in a similar conversation some time ago the manageress asked me, "Why would anyone want a tatty old book when they can have a nice new paperback?" In my view, people with this sort of attitude shouldn't be allowed within 100 yards of an old book. It's a bit like asking why would people want old pieces of Royal Worcester porcelain when they can have a plastic cup from Poundland instead.

 

So please, please, please, if you are going to donate any old books to charity, don't give them to the British Heart Foundation because they will just end up in the bin. Or indeed to Oxfam (who put them out at silly prices, then pulp them when they don't sell), Bluebell Wood, Help the Aged, or St Luke's (though to be fair they usually give customers a chance to buy them first), or anywhere else which only has new-looking books on their shelves. The PDSA in Broomhill has at least started to make an attempt to sell them lately, which makes me suspect that prior to that they sent them all to be pulped as well. In fact it's hard to come up with a shop where I can recommend you do take them, and on the whole I'd say just keep them and enjoy them instead.

 

Note that I'm not saying here that no book should ever be pulped, but faced with ten copies of Jordan's memoirs and a pile of old books, I know which I'd rather send.

 

Sorry if this comes across as a rant, but this sort of thing really does make my blood boil. And if any representatives of the BHF want to post to defend their policy, I'd be glad to hear your reasons for perpetrating this vandalism.

[OOmpa]

Thank you for posting as I wasn't aware that they did this:o I too am a book lover and I find it ridiculous that charity shops are pulping donated books I will never donate any to charity shops again and will use book swaps or Freecycle when I have any to give away.

[Total Chaos]

Thank you for posting as I wasn't aware that they did this:o I too am a book lover and I find it ridiculous that charity shops are pulping donated books I will never donate any to charity shops again and will use book swaps or Freecycle when I have any to give away.

 

Hang on,hang on. The OP may not have been told the state of the books that get thrown away.They may have no covers,pages missing or ripped.

[curriechick]

Take then to a Salvation Army Care& Share shop they don't have this policy

[mrsv]

You don't know the condition of the books that they are given, they could be completely unsellable. I've not worked with second hand books, but have worked with donated clothes and the state of some donations is vile. I've seen worn and unwashed clothes, stains from bodily functions, stains from god know what, and all manner of delightful things shoved in pockets. There is no way these can be sold so have to be scrapped, it could be the same with books.

[Annaleigh]

i don't think its fair branding all oxfam and BHF shops with a bad name.. i used to volunteer at Matilda street oxfam, and yes we did throw away quite a lot of books that looked perfectly fine, when matter of fact pages were ripped out, scribbled in etc.. its a shame that most charity shops throw away a lot of perfectly good books (Im a massive book lover spend every penny i have spare on them) but unfortunately its just the way it is

[Annaleigh]

You don't know the condition of the books that they are given, they could be completely unsellable. I've not worked with second hand books, but have worked with donated clothes and the state of some donations is vile. I've seen worn and unwashed clothes, stains from bodily functions, stains from god know what, and all manner of delightful things shoved in pockets. There is no way these can be sold so have to be scrapped, it could be the same with books.

 

 

 

Haha i can relate to that. we once got tons and tons of clothing from Leadmill that had been found throughout the years.. lets just put it this way.. I haven't been in since

[PostmanPrat]

Oxfam in Nether Edge used to throw books out but stopped after a decorator found an original copy of Black Beauty in a skip. It was worth about 700 quid, the book not the skip. Nether Edge and Broomhill Oxfam both turn over more than 100,000 quid a year each, both are in Oxfam's top ten grossers nationally and so they must both be doing something right.

[*Wallace*]

I took 2 bread trays full of read once hard backs to Oxfam all good books Stephen King Dean Koontz John Grisham etc and lots of expensive text books Gromit used for her degree course,got in the door and the old bag there says no books we don't need any more books,i said some of these cost £40 each love,we don't want any more books go away ??? never ever again.

[metalman]

Hang on,hang on. The OP may not have been told the state of the books that get thrown away.They may have no covers,pages missing or ripped.

 

That's true, but if you go into the shop you will see that there is never a single old book on the shelves. I can't believe that every old book they are donated is in such poor condition that it has to be disposed of.