Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Turkish Garbage Collectors Open a Library from Books Rescued from the Trash

Goodnet – “The Library has over 6,000 fiction and nonfiction books including a children’s’ section. The Library has over 6,000 fiction and nonfiction books including a children’s’ section. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is absolutely the case in Ankara Turkey where garbage collectors started collecting discarded books and ended up opening a library. It all started when sanitation worker Durson Ipek found a bag of cast-off books when he was working and then it snowballed from there. Ipek and other garbage men started gathering the books they found on the streets that were destined for landfills and as their collection started to grow, so did word of mouth. Soon, local residents started donating books directly. The library that originally contained 200 books is located in the Cankaya district of the capital city in a previously vacant brick factory at the sanitation department headquarters. The library was  initially available only to the sanitation employees and their families to use but as the collection grew, so did public interest and the library was opened to the public in December 2017. “On [the] one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets. On the other hand, others were looking for these books,” Çankaya mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN.  “We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books. And when everyone supported it, this project happened.” All the books that are found are sorted and checked for condition, if they pass, they go on the shelves. In fact, everything in the library was also rescued including the bookshelves and the artwork that adorns the walls according to TRT World…”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.