Before now, no real solution existed to help reduce the massive financial

and environmental cost of buying college and school books every year. In

Ireland, up to one million college, secondary, and primary school books are

dumped or not re-used each year. This is a staggering environmental waste.

Now there is a solution. Tim Hurley from Waterford, now living in Lucan Co

Dublin, has set up www.schoolbookexchange.ie. "Necessity is the mother of

invention" and the idea for an online schoolbook exchange facility arose out

of Tim's bitter experience of paying out hundreds of Euro year after year to

buy new school books, when many of these books were already sitting un-used

in other peoples homes.

"I was convinced that there simply had to be a better way of supplying

students with the books they need. My own research showed that there are

hundreds of thousands of used college and school books in homes everywhere

just gathering dust, while at the same time there are students and parents

all over Ireland looking for these same books. What was needed was a place

where people all around the country could buy and sell their used text books

to each other. The Internet allows this to happen, hence my idea of setting

up www.schoolbookexchange.ie", says Tim.

The web site is now up and running and Tim is urging people all over Ireland

to use it. "The immediate need is to encourage parents and students to

register their used college and school books on the web site before the

summer holidays. This will make a huge amount of books available on the web

site for people to buy when the next book list comes out. Never buy a new

text book again, before you check out www.schoolbookexchange.ie first to see

if you can buy it second hand. Thousands of people have already used the web

site and registered their used books, and I know there are many more people

out there who will do the same once they know about this service", says Tim.

Tim is asking everyone to spread the word about this web site by email, text

message, word of mouth or a phone call - it will really help to get the

service off the ground and make sure the web site is of use to everyone. "I

want to make sure parents and students never buy a new text book again,

before they check schoolbookexchange.ie first". So please play your part,

and you will help protect our environment and save money on the cost of

school books ".

Tim Hurley.