Freetown — The recycling of books and office furniture in Britain has allowed a number of libraries to be created in Sierra Leone While the concept of recycling is more commonly associated with environmental issues such as landfill and CO2 emissions, several organisations are working in unison to provide educational benefits to people in Western Africa, according to the UK Guardian. In Sierra Leone, the non governmental organisation Construction and Development Partnership's Build on Books campaign is working alongside Green Works to build and kit out libraries. Green Works recycles used and unwanted office furniture from UK businesses which would have otherwise been thrown away. Indeed, 350 tonnes of office furniture is sent to landfill every year. This office furniture is being sent out to Sierra Leone to be used to hold the thousands of books obtained through the hugely successful Build on Books scheme. Filing cabinets and shelves will house reading materials, while desks and chairs will provide people with the necessary space to learn. Following the civil war in 2002, it is estimated only 20,000 books remained in Sierra Leone, with most having been burnt or destroyed.

Build on Books has, since May 2009, sent 200,000 books to the West African country and aims to deliver a further 500,000 this year, going some way to provide a better book to person ratio for the country's six million citizens. President Bai Koroma hailed the scheme as a success and revealed that the nation's illiteracy was a matter of extreme concern and something that needed to be rectified with urgency. He said: "Today, our freedom is threatened by ignorance, illiteracy, the scarcity of books and libraries, and the reluctance to build a reading culture. We should confront head-on this challenge to our freedom. "Let us continue to ... free ourselves from the chains of ignorance. Build on Books is making a serious and sustained impact on the lives of thousands of children and women," according to the Build on Books website. Build on Books hopes to establish 250 school libraries in 2010 as well as equip many more centers open to the general public.