In 2018, sanitation workers in Çankaya, Turkey, began setting aside books that they pulled from trash bins on their night shifts — first for themselves, then for their family and friends. 

Over time, as the collection grew, the workers began storing them in the sloping hallways of an abandoned brick factory, which also serves as the headquarters for the city’s sanitation department. 

In 2018, the “Kitap Okuma Salonu,” (Workers’ Library) collection was officially designated as a public library for the people of Çankaya. 

“We started to discuss the idea of creating a library from these books,” Çankaya Mayor Alper Tasdelen told CNN when the library first opened. “And when everyone supported it, this project happened.”

“On one hand, there were those who were leaving these books on the streets,” Tasdelen added. “On the other hand — others were looking for these books.” 

In its first year, the library housed over 6,000 books. 

Today, it’s home to more than 40,000. 

When the number of books began exceeding the amount of shelf space at the library, the workers transformed one of their garbage trucks into a mobile library so that they could bring the excess books to local schools and prisons. 

“Village schoolteachers from all over Turkey are requesting books,” Tasdelen said.

The collection has grown so large in recent years that the city hired a full-time librarian to help tend to the books and facilitate loans on a two-week basis. 

‍

In January, the Spouses of Head of Mission committee (a group of 12 women, who are the wives of ambassadors from 12 countries) visited the Workers’ Library and added to the collection’s foreign language section by donating recycled books “from the garbage to the library.” 

The books were published in more than 13 different languages, in honor of the committee’s home countries. 

According to the Turkish outlet Anka Haber Ajansi, SHOM Green Group Coordinator Kaire Jürgenson said that they “appreciated those who contributed to the establishment of the library” and emphasized that “this valuable work should be announced to more people.”

On a given day, the library is filled with municipal employees, their children, and students from local schools as they leaf through countless books and read quietly at assorted tables. 

For the sanitation workers who operate out of the brick building, the library has long served as a home away from home. 

“Before, I wished that I had a library in my house,” Serhat Baytemur, a garbage collector, said in a press statement. “Now we have a library here.”

Header image via Cankaya Municipality News Center