Cultivating Community through recycling & reading

Our mission is to unite the community through collective action in recycling and reading—empowering everyone, from youth to elders, to make a meaningful impact on the environment while fostering a love for accessible literacy.

About us

Events

New in 2025

Cans4Books will be changing their recycling collection initiatives for 2025. We will be focusing on Reef the Recycling Whale’s migration hosting community recycling drives and book drives.

If you would like to donate your recyclables, please contact cans4books@gmail.com.

Thank you for your continued commitment to our mission!

Recycled: 11,971.65 lbs of CRV aluminum cans & plastic bottles

Donated/Received: 11,139 books

A group of people hold up children's books and smile. There are many boxes of books on the tables in front of them.

Reef our Recycling Whale, made out of 100% repurposed materials. Constructed by Nelson Built Inc.

Programs

Recycling, Reading, & Community

Recycling

Put your CRV cans to good use! We accept CRV aluminum cans and plastic bottles only.

Community Recycling Fundraisers
Special Event Recycling Collection
Reef the Recycling Whale

Reading

Free and accessible books are dispersed throughout the community.

Stocking Free Little Libraries
Hosting Book Drives
Supporting local children book authors
Rupert’s Traveling Free Library

Community

Advocating for our community, we host and facilitate environmental projects and educational engagement outreach throughout the year.

Reef the Whale
Beach Cleanups
School Block Walk Cleanups
Educational Outreach

How to get involved

Help get more books into kids hands, beautify San Diego, and get involved in your community!

Host Reef the Whale Recycling Receptacle

Take an active role in keeping San Diego beautiful. Get in touch to host our Whale Recycling Receptacle for your next community cleanup, school fundraiser, and/or special event.

Help us buy a truck

We’re currently raising money for a vehicle to tow Reef the Whale and handle our recycling process! Donate to our truck fund.

Donate children’s books

We welcome donations of new or gently used children’s books! We will deliver them to our community partners and little free libraries.

Join our community!

The Cans4Books Story

Learn how a pandemic passion project turned into a literacy nonprofit.

How we started

It all started in 2020 when Trisha Goolsby started picking up crv recyclables in the streets of San Diego with the children she nannied. With inspiration from a neighbor, Trisha realized she could use the recycling money to buy children’s books.
Trisha started getting involved in local town councils and other community events to collect cans and form partnerships.
So far we’ve recycled over 11,000 pounds of CRV aluminum cans, glass, and plastic bottles! And received/donated over 10,000 children’s books to our local elementary schools, Little Free Libraries, and community events.

Read our story

Our mascots

Rupert – Spreads the joy of reading by providing free and accessible children’s books.
Ruby – Builds community through her block walk adventures and heartfelt acts of kindness.
RJ – Teaches the power of recycling as a fundraising tool while championing reduce, reuse, and repurpose.
Reef – Leads by example, showing how we can repurpose materials instead of sending them to the landfill, embracing the vision of reduce, reuse, recycle.

“Reading is knowledge, the most powerful gift we can give to children.”