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BOOK-SWAPPING FEVER IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Donna Werbner | 06.01.2006 00:32 | Technology

An online book swap scheme, set up by two friends in their spare time, has recycled more than £10,000 worth of books.

An online book swap scheme, set up by two friends in their spare time, has recycled more than £10,000 worth of books.

The site, ReadItSwapIt ( http://www.readitswapit.co.uk), allows book lovers to swap books over the internet – free of charge.

More than 6,500 books have been registered since Neil Ferguson and Andrew Bathgate, 26, set up the site a few months ago.

Already, over £10,000 worth of books have been stolen from bookshops’ coffers and swapped on the site.

There’s currently another 4,100 books worth around £30,000 up for grabs online.

Traffic to the site peaked over the festive period, with receivers of unwanted Xmas book gifts swapping like crazy.

Since Christmas Day 2005, more than 500 users have joined the site and registered nearly 2,000 books.

Over 400 books have been swapped in the last week alone.

The idea for the site came when Andrew got fed up with books he had already read gathering dust and filling up his bookshelves.

He complained about how much he was spending on books to his friend Neil, a computer programmer, and said that he would love to be able to swap books with other readers.

The site is totally free to use. All users need are books they no longer want. When they see a book they want, they offer to swap any of their books with that user and exchange addresses. Hey presto! A new book arrives in the post.

“We wanted to create a site that would enable people to gain access to hundreds of books, without having to spend any money,” said 26 year-old ReadItSwapIt co-founder Neil Ferguson.

Users need never spend another penny on new books ever again, cutting out trips to the bookshop forever.

Environmental charities like Friends of the Earth and Leep Recycling have praised the book recycling element of ReadItSwapIt to their members while Scottish Waste Awareness Group and the National Literacy Trust are currently directing book lovers to ReadItSwapIt via their websites.

Librarians across the country are supporting the site and libraries in London, Bury St Edmonds and Northern Ireland are promoting the site to their members.

For further information please contact:
ReadItSwapIt co-founder Andrew Bathgate
Tel: 0794 136 4248
Email:  pressoffice@readitswapit.co.uk


Donna Werbner
- e-mail: pressoffice@readitswapit.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.readitswapit.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

Ever heard of libraries?

06.01.2006 15:40

another option is to join your local library. It's sad that we are so atomised that some people don't even think of using an existing public space and resource, but instead prefer to locate books via their individual computer screen.

book lover

Freecycle

07.01.2006 09:50

You could also get rid of excess books via your local Freecycle group www.freecycle.org as well as lots of other potentail landfill and general clutter that someoene else might find useful

Herby Spiral

This is a much bigger library open whenever I want to visit

26.03.2006 10:15

I have a local library card but find that it is rarely open when I have the time to visit. I do occasionally patronise it but the selection of books is declining in favour of electronic and entertainment media all the time. Read it Swap it is now a VAST library which I can access at my convenience. I really feel a part of it as I have some of this enormous wealth of literature and information in my own living space, although I do wish that some members would learn the difference between fiction and non-fiction when they categorise the books they add to the library.

Jacko

Jacko
mail e-mail: jackie@posullivan1.wanadoo.co.uk

Why stop at books?

12.04.2006 14:35

I'd just like to say that whilst you're at it you can also swap cds, dvds and etc... I've been really impressed by eswapnow.com - swapped a book for a dvd!

Rob
mail e-mail: kayser.soze@yahoo.com

Update to article

15.06.2006 08:50

Thanks for all your comments and to everyone who read this. Would just like to make a quick update to say that the website has really grown dramatically in size since I wrote this. Nearly 45,000 books have been swapped since January and there's currently more than 41.000 books up for swapping on the site.

That means we estimate that, in total, our users have saved around £350,000 and more than 300 trees by swapping instead of shopping for books. Members are recycling around 9,000 books a month - great news for avid readers and environmentalists alike!

As for the comment about libraries, we're not trying to replace libraries, we're just trying to offer more choice. Some people are housebound and being able to browse a huge library online full of books they can actually afford to get is a great bonus for them in their lives. One of our users is elderly (79 years old with 79 swaps!) and he told me it has been a godsend because it saves him long walks to his local library and lots of library fines he can ill afford. But the fact is, libraries across the UK are actually promoting ReadItSwapIt as a new way for people to access books. They don't feel under threat - in fact they welcome the site as another way to get readers reading and interested in new authors and types of books.

I think eswapnow is a good site, especially because it's international. But it does cost £5 to join while ReadItSwapIt is free. One day we hope to expand to include DVDs etc but at the moment we are making improvements in our spare time, to keep the site free. So we're really amazed and overwhelmed at the support and loyalty we've been getting from our users.

But enough of me rambling - why not check it out yourself?

Happy Swapping!




Donna Werbner
mail e-mail: pressoffice@readitswapit.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.readitswapit.co.uk