GARBAGE COLLECTORS IN TURKEY SAVES BOOKS FROM TRASH TO CREATE A LIBRARY

One person’s trash is another person’s literary treasure. A group of trash collectors in Ankara, Turkey, noticed a pattern when they kept discovering books in the trash that they collected throughout the city. Feeling sorry for materials that could so readily help others, they thought of a solution. The books that the workers saved from a landfill were used to build a library.

The trash hauliers started sorting through the books in a subterranean brick factory. Part of the headquarters of the sanitation department, the location had been deserted for a long time. The space proved ideal for a library because of its long corridors and old brick façade.

The workers visited the library both before and after their shifts after categorising the books. They then started lending books to their relatives and friends. The garbage collectors eventually allowed the public access to the library in 2017 as it gained popularity, and books started to be donated rather than thrown out.

The library has more than 6,000 books, mostly non-fiction and Turkish literature. It also has a whole section dedicated to scientific research and a popular kids' section with comic books. Books in both English and French are also available for visitors to Ankara and those who speak it as a second language. It received chess boards and a reading lounge for guests more recently.

Çankaya, the local municipality, was so thrilled with this mission that it decided to pay for a full-time library employee. We got to talking about the possibility of building a library out of these books. This project came to be when everyone gave their support, according to Çankaya Mayor Alper Taşdelen. Currently, a garbage truck has been transformed into a donation truck and mobile library.

The project is not limited to Ankara. The garbage collectors are not only pleased with the library, which many of them did not have access to when they were children, but village schoolteachers from all over Turkey are also requesting books from this project. Taşdelen stated, "On the one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets." However, there were other people who were searching for these books.