Brighton book recycling project saved (From The Argus)

Brighton book recycling project saved

5:00pm Saturday 18th April 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(3)

A couple of reading radicals have decided to keep turning over a new leaf.

Artists Graeme Walker and Chris Smith were so keen to save a unique book recycling project they have set it up in their home.

The Book Cycle, formerly based in the open market in London Road, Brighton, pledged to turn trees into books and back again.

People paid whatever they could afford and any unsold literature was recycled – with a tree planted for each unloved tome so a new book could grow in its place.

But it was feared the eco-project had reached its last chapter when the Book Cycle’s owner announced she could no longer afford Brighton rents and left 5,000 books for the bin man.

That was until Mr Walker and Mr Smith decided it could not be the end of the story and took the books home.

Mr Walker, 29, said: “When I heard the shop had closed and books were just lying around ready to be thrown out, I had to step in. We blagged the borrowing of a van and went down there with a kind of military determination to come to the books’ rescue.

“We salvaged more than 2,000 as well as shelves and the original handpainted Book Cycle signs that had been abandoned.”

Mr Walker thought the Book Cycle would be the perfect addition to The Coachwerks Creative Cowerking Community in Hollingdean Terrace, Brighton.

Mr Walker, who helped set up the creative community in an old garage last year, said: “It’s a creative community for people who want to work together to make a living that doesn’t bend to the vagaries of the financial world that has got us into so much trouble.”

Mr Walker said:“We have sifted through the books and recycled ones we feel people won’t want. We use money from the recycling process to plant trees, giving way eventually to new books and completing the cycle.

“But it also means we are starting afresh with only really quality books for people to come and read.”