#BOOKS4OURFUTURE

I started this campaign in September 2024 to save billions of books from ending up in landfills and help combat climate change.

I want to ensure all useable books are donated, read and re-donated and don’t end up in landfills. This won’t just support good causes across the world but also spare our environment millions of tons of greenhouse gases, every year.

The campaign is for children as well as for adults. Read the facts and figures here.

This campaign aims to prevent an estimated 400 million books that end up in landfills worldwide, every year. These books have emitted 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent when manufactured and would produce another 60 thousand tonnes if discarded.

You can take two simple steps to join #BOOKS4OURFUTURE and save books to protect our future.

STEP 1
Please ask your parents (if you are a child) to download the PDF file (link below) and print the label below on regular A4 papers or sticker sheets. Each sheet has 6 labels. You can then stick these labels (like the one below) on pre-loved books you donate to charities, libraries or even gift friends and family.

Download and print labels

If you do not have access to a printer, you can also write the following on a clearly visible part of the book you are donating.

#BOOKS4OURFUTURE
DONATE AFTER READING TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE.
Visit moksharoy.com/books4ourfuture to find out how this book can save our future!
WIN PRIZES and download a copy of this message. Stick these on books you donate and get millions to follow you.
Donated by:__________________________________
Campaign led by World’s Youngest Sustainability Advocate Moksha Roy. www.moksharoy.com

STEP 2.
Ask your parent (if you are a child) to post photos or videos of books you donate with these labels on Instagram and include the campaign’s handle @books4ourfuture as a COLLABORATOR (find out how to do that here). That will ensure your photos or videos show up on our official account as well as on yours. Please make sure you share how many books you are donating and tag friends and family as well so that they too can follow your lead. And most importantly, don’t forget to mention #books4ourfuture in your posts so that we can find the best campaigners and give prizes to them.

BRING CHANGE AND WIN PRIZES
From amongst the best campaigners, both adults and children will receive signed books from famous authors and other goodies too.

How are discarded books contributing to climate change?

Over 2 Million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent is produced in making all the books we throw away every year. While they are decaying in landfills or in the environment, they produce about 60 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent gasses.

Approximately 2.2 billion new titles are printed worldwide each year. In the UK, approximately 150 million books are printed each year (both new titles and reprints).

Globally, it’s estimated that about 400 million books are dumped in landfills each year. This number reflects the widespread issue of unsold or discarded books being treated as waste rather than being recycled or repurposed.

The impact of discarded books on the climate has two damaging aspects.
1. On an average, an equivalent of 5 kg of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere in making a book. So, the 400 million books discarded every year, accounts for nearly 2M tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent released into the atmosphere. These could have been put to better use rather than discarding them, given that the damage to the environment their production has already caused.

2. Paper creates around 1.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with about a third of that amount coming from its disposal in our landfills, worldwide. Decaying paper releases 25-50% of its weight in carbon dioxide equivalent. This means that if an average book weighs around 0.3 kg (for a standard paperback), the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from one book could be roughly up to 0.15 kg. So for the 400M books discarded worldwide, approximately 60 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent is released into the atmosphere.

Note: Carbon dioxide equivalent is a unit of measurement that is used to standardise the climate effects of various greenhouse gases. In addition to the most important man-made greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO₂), there are other greenhouse gases such as methane or nitrous oxide.

References
– https://isbndb.com/blog/how-many-books-are-in-the-world/
– https://nordsense.com/increasing-recycling-and-keeping-books-out-of-landfills-with-dream-books-co/
– https://recycled-papers.co.uk/green-matters/why-use-recycled-papers/reduce-landfill
– https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/powering-paper-recycling-with-fossil-fuels-hampers-climate-benefits-researchers-say

What impact will donating and re-donating books to charities or libraries and gifting pre-loved books to friends and family will have on the environment and our future?

“Every drop makes an ocean”.

Human activities produce nearly 40B tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year. So, saving 400 Million books or 2M and 60 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide may not seem like a lot. In fact this campaign could only reduce 0.005% of these total carbon dioxide emissions. But it is far better than not making any difference at all!

Also remember, it is just one of the many steps we can take to reduce our impact on the climate. If every one of you could start a campaign on other things that could reduce our carbon emissions like this, imagine the impact we can create collectively.

So, if you buy books from charity shops, read them and re-donate them to charity shops, you are not only contributing to cutting carbon dioxide but also the money these books generate could fund important causes directly and indirectly benefitting you and your loved ones. These could be environmental protection, water conservation, cancer cure, prevention of heart disease, caring for local children, protecting the homeless or any other cause really. All of these issues if taken care of will have beneficial impact on improving society’s 360 degree sustainability through the interlinked nature of the world we live in. These would in turn help society at large and combat climate change too.

If you are gifting your own books to friends and family, you too are making a very significant impact and contributing to the campaign.

References
– https://www.statista.com/statistics/276629/global-co2-emissions/

If you want a more detailed version of this information please contact me directly.

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