November 25th, 2007

Recycle & Share Books with 2SWAP.com

Posted by Jessica Jensen

I want to let you know about a very cool new green service. Our good friends at 2SWAP.com have just unveiled their new environmentally friendly book swapping website.  If you haven’t heard of it yet, 2SWAP.com is a web community dedicated to freeing captive books in America.  Their motto: “Free your books, the rest will follow.”

Believe it or not, there are literally billions of books sitting captive on American bookshelves right now.  Most of them have been read once or twice, are in great condition, and won’t be used ever again. By freeing captive books, 2SWAP.com spreads knowledge and conserves precious natural resources.  It’s a lot better for the environment if a bunch of people share one book, rather than manufacturing a bunch of books.

Membership in 2SWAP.com is free.  You simply sign up, list a few books you’re willing to share, and they’ll give you some free swap credits to shop for any book you want on the site.  You can get up to three free credits if you list 10 books, which will take you less than 10 minutes.  When you request a book, it shows up in your mailbox a few days later.  If someone requests one of your books, you’ll get an email from 2SWAP telling you to mail it out (with the automatically generated PDF mailer).  You’ll have to pay postage out of your own pocket.  It’s usually about $2 per book. You shouldn’t mind paying to send out books, because when you receive them, it’s totally free – so really you make out like a bandit.

In another environmentally friendly twist, 2SWAP suggests mailing your books with virtually no packaging.  We didn’t believe it would work, but it totally does.  Simply print the PDF mailing label from the link they send you, tape the piece of printer paper over the open side of the book, hit it with some postage, and send it on its way.  Like they said, “Free Your Books, The Rest Will Follow.”  To join 2SWAP.com free of charge, go here.  After you sign up, if you send an e-mail to Info@2SWAP.com with your 2SWAP username and Low Impact Living in the subject line, you’ll get one EXTRA swap credit, just because. High five to that!

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