According to Kiki Beauchamp, co-founder of Bulrushed Books with her husband Mark, the company got its start at the local recycling center, where a bunch of used books were parked.
“Mark showed up at the local recycling center and saw a palette of books sitting there and he couldn’t leave them,” Kiki said. “He was convinced that these books could be repaired to be used and enjoyed once again.”
Mark is a long-time book lover. When Kiki met Mark, he was about to open Ball & Cross Books, a brick-and-mortar bookstore in their northern Idaho town, which opened its doors on Labor Day in 2003. Though the two loved owning the store, they had to sell the business and pursue other career opportunities in 2009 when the economy took a downward turn.
Those other opportunities led to Bulrushed Books, which focuses on restoring and repairing used or damaged textbooks to eventually put back in students’ hands.
Bulrushed’s goal is to try to save as many books as possible to get the books back into the hands of readers, students, and children. Textbooks can be very expensive, so through this work Bulrushed is working to make education affordable and accessible to students from all backgrounds.
“We started out by taking boxes and pallets of books to repair and put back into the marketplace,” Kiki said. “We initially positioned the company as a damaged book repair service, so we reached out to companies and individuals in the higher education space needing solutions for damaged textbooks.”
Over time, as more companies were interested in working with Bulrushed Books, the Beauchamps were faced with a multitude of books that they didn’t want to go to waste. That’s when the company crossed over into book recycling.
“Mark came up with the idea of processing the books in a way that we could use every part of the book,” Kiki said. “It’s the reason that Myles Cohen, president of ReMA’s Paper Stock Industries chapter called us the first circular book company in the country.”
Bulrushed de-binds its books and sends the loose pages to a pulping partner who renews and makes those pages into recycled paper content. Bulrushed then repurposes their recycled paper into various products including notebooks, planners, newspapers, and packaging materials. The company is also working with partners on how to use all the parts of the book including the cover and spine.
A recent collaboration was with Rareform, which upcycles and repurposes used vinyl from billboards. With their recycled materials and Bulrushed’s book remainders, they created a unique line of bookmarks, all made with recycled materials.
According to Kiki, Bulrushed wants to be a conduit for the damaged books and is eager to find partners that are similarly aligned in their vision.
“We think of the water, trees, and plants that went into the making of a book—those resources are still there. We see the value and merit in taking the resources and the energy that was put into the making of the book and stewarding those resources into the making of something new,” Kiki said. “Recyling is always a group effort, and to that end, Mark and I are thankful for our friends at ReMA, especially John Sacco, Leonard Zeid, and Myles Cohen. They have been instrumental guides in navigating the world of recycling!”
Photos Courtesy of Bulrushed Books.