Shaw Trust launches book recycling project in Cowdenbeath

Employment charity Shaw Trust is launching a sustainable Book Recycling project in Cowdenbeath on 5th March 2010.

The Book Recycling project is a new social enterprise, in partnership with Bookdonors, which reuses and recycles unwanted books that would otherwise be sent to landfill sites, to raise money for charity.

The project team collects unwanted books which are then sorted to check their condition and scanned to assess their value. Books are then either:

• Sent to Bookdonors for sale over the internet to raise money for charity
• Donated to local community organisations, libraries or families with low incomes, to help develop children's reading skills
• Recycled if they are not suitable for sale or donation

Ruaridh Maclean, Shaw Trust Project Manager, says:

“The Book Recycling project gives new life to old books, benefitting the local community as well as helping to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. We collect unwanted books from libraries, charities and other community groups which are then either sold online to raise money for good causes or reused to benefit the community.”

The Book Recycling project is expected to divert around four million books – 1,300 tonnes - from landfill over the next year, generating an estimated £250,000 for charities, libraries and community groups.

In addition, the project provides work experience and training placements which enable local disabled and disadvantaged people to learn new skills and gain valuable work experience. The project has already created six jobs and 15 training placements, with that set to double over the next few months.

Shaw Trust’s Book Recycling Project is run in partnership with Bookdonors, a successful social enterprise trading in used books to help people, charities and our environment.

To find out more about the project, volunteering opportunities and work placements, or to donate books, please contact Janet Rennie on 01383 610263.

NOTES TO EDITORS:
 

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

When: Friday 5th March 2010 at 11.00 am

Where: Shaw Trust Book Recycling Project, Block 4, Units 10 & 11, Woodend Industrial Estate, Cowdenbeath, Fife, KY4 8HW

Guests including Willie Rennie MP and councillors from Fife Council will be given a guided tour of the project by Shaw Trust staff, volunteers and local disabled and disadvantaged people who are undertaking training placements at Shaw Trust projects.

John Sole, Shaw Trust Community Enterprises General Manager will make a short speech and officially open the project.

There will be a photo opportunity of guests and Shaw Trust staff in the project’s book sorting area.

Refreshments will be available and the event is expected to close at 1pm.
 

1. For further details please contact Rachel Pearson, Shaw Trust Communications Manager, on 07595 214511. 
    
2. Shaw Trust is a national charity, formed in 1982, which helps people with disability or disadvantage to find work and achieve independence. We do this not only by delivering government programmes, but also through our own self-funded initiatives, and by campaigning to change attitudes at all levels. Across the UK more than 1,600 staff now oversee a diverse range of more than 200 projects.
    
3. If you would like to support the work that Shaw Trust does to help disabled and disadvantaged people find work and achieve independence please visit our website.
    
4. Bookdonors is a social enterprise trading in used books to help people, charities and the environment. Bookdonors’ priorities are:
   
   - To help our charity & not-for-profit partners to fund-raise through the sale of used books on the internet.
   - To provide flexible employment opportunities to people who find work generally difficult to obtain.
   - To support literacy development by giving away 10,000s of free books.
   - To help protect our precious environment by re-using & recycling unwanted books which would have gone to landfill.
   
   Bookdonors processed over 1000 tonnes of unwanted books in 2009.
    

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