WH Smith launches second hand buy-back scheme for unwanted books

Customers will be able to trade their used books in return for a voucher to spend in store or online

WH Smith is the first UK high street retailer to launch a book buy-back scheme (AFP via Getty Images)

WH Smith has launched a trade-in service for unwanted second hand books, offering customers vouchers in exchange for their old volumes.

Through the new BookCycle scheme, which launched this week, readers can register their books online, take them to a branch and then receive a voucher to spend in-store or online.

According to the WH Smith website, those used books will be passed on to another reader or responsibly recycled.

WH Smith customers will need to use the book’s ISBN number to register it online, before being given a price for the book’s worth. This is based on a particular criteria that estimates its condition, popularity and demand in the book market.

A well-kept paperback version of Bell Hooks’s All About Love gets £1.65, while an almost new copy of Sara Cox’s Sunday Times 2023 bestseller Thrown is valued at 20p and a battered copy of Sally Rooney’s bestseller Beautiful World, Where Are You is worth 50p.

The scheme marks the first time a major high street retailer has offered a buy-back book initiative, though many companies have already attempted to address the environmental impact of the book publishing industry in recent years. In 2021, heavyweight publishing houses Penguin Random House UK, Simon & Schuster UK and HarperCollins all signed the sustainability pledge Publishing Declares, which addresses the environmental impact of deforestation, paper milling, printing, packaging and transport.

WH Smith is working alongside Zeercle, a company that offers buy-back logistic services for large-scale retailers, such as phone trade-ins or book recycling. The retailer says on its website that the majority of the books will find new homes through Zeercle’s resale system, which relies on using online marketplaces including Amazon and eBay to sell second hand books.

Ian Sanders, the commercial development director of the WH Smith group, has said that it hopes to encourage a “circular economy” for its book customers.

WH Smith executives hope that intitiative will encourage a ‘circular economy’ for its book customers (Getty Images)

“It makes great sense for our customers and our business to support a circular economy for books, as we aim to minimise our impact on the environment and support our local communities,” said Sanders.

“The buy-back scheme really does offer a compelling reason for customers to recycle their second hand books, and being able to exchange these for WHSmith eGift cards gives them another great reason to shop with us.”

Meanwhile, organisations and book lovers have expressed doubt over whether the scheme will be effective in practice.

“This sounds rather too good to be true with used books already flooding [the] market here,” sustainability organisation Sussed in the Forest wrote in a post on Twitter/X.

Other Twitter users expressed concern over the impact of such schemes on charity shops that receive book donations and often allow shoppers to find previously used books at an affordable price.

“Sounds good in principle… but hope it doesn’t erode book donations to charity shops like Oxfam,” wrote one person on Twitter/X.