Shelves for book-crossing made of videotapes. By Victoria A. Chuikina. Concept: Upcycle! Make treasure out of trash. Shelves are made to allow residents of an appartment complex share used books via book-crossing. The shelves can be used by neighbours or anyone who has access to the ground floor. The shelves are made of videotapes glued together with a hot glue gun. Weight around 15 kg. Size: 1165×426×376 mm. Year shelves were made in: 2024. Made in the number of 1 ps. Price — free, cost of making — the price of hot glue.
I got the idea to make shelves for book-crossing out of old videotapes when I was serching for ways to recycle them, and found that the magnetic tape is not recycble. It is also made with harmful substances that are highly polutive for the soil, thus there was no way I would just put the tapes in the trash.
Having studied the experience of other countries, I found people who were upcycling videotapes by giving them a new function. For example they made coffe-tables or shelves.
I’ve been wanting to set up book-crossing at the apartment complex I live in for a while, so I loved the idea of making shelves. Neighbours supported it too, so I thought through the construction and how it should hold the weight. I made the shelves by gluing the tapes together with a hot glue gun.
I set the shelves up and also put some decorations on to make them look nicer. The shelves have been in use since mid July 2024, and ever since you can always find something to read there.
If you have something that’s not recycable, don’t chuck it out immediately — think if you can upcycle it. In our case it’s not the videotapes only that got a new life but also old books.
Here’s the video of the process of making the shelves (embedding the code into the application website didn’t work) https://vk.com/wall-212910200_175 or
