Garbage Collectors in Ankara, Turkey, Open a Public Library of Recycled Books
Ankara has plenty of surprises, and a public library built out of books rescued from trash bins might be one of the city’s most delightful twists. The project began when sanitation workers kept spotting novels, textbooks, research guides, and comic books discarded with household waste. Instead of letting them head to landfills, they held onto a few. Then a few more.
The stacks grew until someone joked about turning them into a library. By the time the idea reached officials in the Çankaya district, it had already taken on a life of its own. Workers had saved hundreds of titles by that point.
As residents discovered the project, they began bringing in their own piles of books. Once the number of rescued books climbed into the thousands, opening the doors to the public made sense.
How A Trash Pile Turned Into A Community Library
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In its earliest form, the library served employees, their families, and the occasional visiting friend. Shelves filled quickly. Books in Turkish sat beside English and French titles. Fiction and nonfiction stood alongside classics, comics, and research materials. In early 2018, the collection consisted of approximately 6,000 volumes.
The books eventually climbed over 9,000 as donations continued to come in. Interest had spread across Ankara, and when the team opened the library to the public, visitors arrived in steady streams.
Teachers across Turkey began requesting books for their classrooms. Educational groups borrowed sets for their programs. Prisons also reached out for reading materials.
A Growing Circle Of Readers
Finding a home for the expanding collection required creativity, and a vacant brick factory at the sanitation department headquarters proved to be the answer. The long corridors and worn facade gave the library a relaxed feel.
A second branch eventually formed inside a truck. It traveled to schools around Ankara and brought thousands of books straight to students. Many schools lacked reading rooms, so the truck offered a direct way for kids to pick up books during the day.
Borrowing worked on a simple two-week system, with extensions available. Visitors included employees’ children, students from nearby schools, and cyclists who passed through the valley behind the building. Some stopped for tea and a brief reading break, and the space gradually became a friendly gathering spot.
Growth created job opportunities as well. Staff were hired to manage the collection and track loans. Donations continued to arrive and helped expand the subjects to more than twenty categories, including romance, politics, history, literature, and health.
One garbage collector summed up the pride behind the project. He explained that he had always wanted a library at home, and now he could walk into one that his own team had created. His sentiment captured the immense value the workers placed on what they built.
Why Ankara Needed This Boost
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Turkey has dealt with a shortage of public libraries for years. Around the time these efforts took shape, reports cited approximately one library for every 70,000 people. In the European Union, the average stood at about one for every 6,200.
Turning discarded books into a shared treasure changed the community’s relationship with reading. Students, teachers, families, and casual readers gained access to material they might not have reached otherwise. The workers simply recognized value in items many people tossed aside, and the city gained something special in return.