What began as a routine day of collecting rubbish in the streets of Ankara slowly turned into one of Turkey’s most inspiring community projects. Sanitation workers in the city’s Cankaya district noticed that perfectly readable books were frequently being discarded alongside household waste. Instead of sending them to landfill, workers started setting the books aside, hoping someone might one day read them again. The collection continued to grow as more books were rescued from bins and abandoned piles. Residents later began donating directly, and the idea eventually evolved into a fully functioning public library that today holds around 40,000 books and serves readers across the community.
