I'm writing to tell you about bookBgone, a venture that we (Andrea Hirschfeld and Lois Cantwell) recently launched.

bookBgone is a free-of-charge, media-removal service that is dedicated to recycling, reusing and donating unwanted books. We pick up books, CDs, and DVDS in any condition curbside from your home.   

All too often, we have heard no one ‘takes’ unwanted books, and have often seen them in the trash. It occurred to us that there are plenty of people who want and can use these books. So we decided to become a kind of book/media clearinghouse.  

Since early June we have been picking up unwanted books, CDs and DVDs. We then work to put them in the hands of people who want and need books/media, or we reuse or recycle them.  

In this short time, we have donated approx. 1400 pounds of books, forty-six boxes of which (fiction, non-fiction, kids and adult books) were sent to Joplin MO where all of school libraries were lost in  the large tornado disaster. Through our efforts we have kept approx. 1800 pounds of material out of our landfills. At this rate we are aiming for recycling over 4 tons by the end of 2011! We also support a western NY animal shelter and a Hoboken-based community initiative with book and/or media donations.  

We are continually looking for additional places to donate books and are especially interested in connecting with armed forces overseas so please let us know if you have any ideas or contacts.  

Building this business is fun and exciting for us. The feedback we receive from our customers is that this is an extremely needed service. Currently we offer the bookBgone service for free to anyone in Essex, Union and Morris counties. However, we will certainly make every effort to help if you live outside this area.

Contact us anytime at bookbgone@gmail.com or 908-912-6652 for more information, or if you or anyone you know would like a free pick up. 

— Lois Cantwell is a writer, an editor and one of the original Patch contributors.