About Us
Book Harvest is a small book trading organisation set up by former Publishing representative Julian Kemp. We are a for-profit enterprise but profit is not our sole focus or aim. We exist for three purposes:
- To offer a reliable scheduled collection service for academics to clear away unwanted texts directly from outside academic offices.
- To ensure that as many unwanted books as possible find a home where they are wanted and are not discarded in landfill (see environment below)
- To support the work of Book Aid International and other charitable organisations.
Originally we set up with the intention of collecting unwanted academic textbooks from Universities ( England and Wales) and sending them out to developing countries. Before too long it became apparent that this was not viable, without either significant funding or the creation of a distribution network.
We shifted our focus to trading the texts we collect within the UK and then giving a share of the profits to support the work of Book Aid International. The remainder of the profit that we make is used to fund our collection service for Universities and ensure our venture is sustainable. Through our contributions to Book Aid International we are able to achieve our original goal of sending books to the developing world. More information about Book Aid International can be found at their website: www.bookaid.org
Environment
By far the biggest challenge of our journey has been disposing of texts that we cannot trade or donate onwards to other organisations.
Once we have held a text for 1 year we offer it to other charitable organisations, normally with little success. We have also from time to time sent bulk shipments of texts to libraries but again the majority are reluctant to accept donated texts.
Once we reach the point of being unable to find a home for a text we recycle as much of it as possible. With the majority of texts, the glue used to bind the pages prevents us from recycling it 100% so in this instance, we remove the pages which can then be sent for regular paper recycling leaving only the spine and glue going to landfill.
We are strongly committed to helping protect the environment and so would love to find a system to recycle 100% of any text. Unfortunately, we have not yet found a solution to this issue but would welcome any suggestions and perhaps the opportunity to work with any organisation that could help with the book recycling issue. Please feel free contact us if you can help us achieve our goal.