Jose Alberto Gutierrez  is an avid reader of works by authors such as Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo and Mario Vargas Llosa. His favorite books include “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “The General in his Labyrinth” by Colombia’s Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Despite only having a second-grade education, the garbage collector wants to spread his love of literature to thousands of children in impoverished areas of Colombia, the Associated Press reports.

Gutierrez started rescuing books from the trash almost 20 years ago, when he was driving a garbage truck at night through the capital’s wealthier neighborhoods. The discarded reading material slowly piled up, and now the ground floor of his small house is a makeshift community library stacked from floor to ceiling with some 20,000 books, ranging from chemistry textbooks to children’s classics.

He says books are luxuries for boys and girls in low-income neighborhoods such as his, with new reading material at bookstores too expensive. There are 19 public libraries in Bogota, a city of 8.5 million, but tend to be located far away from poorer areas.

“This should be in all neighborhoods, on each corner of every neighborhood, in all the towns, in all departments, and all the rural areas,” Gutierrez told the AP reporter. “Books are our salvation and that is what Colombia needs.”

The 53-year-old Gutierrez has a love of reading he attributes to his mother, who always read to him even though she was too poor to keep him in school.

“She used to read me stories every night,” said Gutierrez, who has traveled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to share his experience of starting a library with discarded reading material. “To me, books are the greatest invention and the best thing that can happen to a human being.”

While Gutierrez still sifts through the rubbish for additions to his library, his fame as Colombia’s “Lord of the Books” has also brought him thousands of donated tomes that he’s sent to other libraries around the country because he doesn’t have room for them all.

He says he doesn’t reject technology that allows books to be read digitally, but says he prefers to read the printed word on paper.

“There’s nothing more beautiful than having a book in your pocket, in your bag or inside your car,” he says.

Recycling old books is a wonderful way to contribute to the literacy of the next generation, especially for children who don’t have easy access to libraries. Although no exact numbers exist, it’s likely that the number of books thrown away each year is enormous, when you consider Americans consume over 2 million paper books each year.

Next time you’re culling your own home library collection, consider donating as an alternative. Many libraries accept donations, which they in turn sell to the public and use profits to help fund their programs.

Groups like Books for Africa and Better World Books are also alternatives. A quick Google search will unearth many more choices. Think twice before getting rid of those childhood favorites.

The latest stories from around the country and the world:

U.K. Trash Cans Turned into Minions: Garbage bins in East Sussex, U.K., recently turned into Minions, and residents have been abuzz trying to figure who painted them, according to the local newspaper. The yellow cartoon characters appeared overnight this past Monday in the small southern U.K. towns of Peacehaven, Newhaven and Rottingdean, the Sussex Express reported. The bins were numbered one to 10, and it remains a mystery as to who painted them. The Peacehaven Town Council reportedly said it didn’t know who was responsible for the “binions,” as they’ve been called on social media, but said it “admired their creativity.” A spokesperson for the Lewes District Council said it doesn’t have a clue as to who painted the mysterious Minions, but that council members are happy they are bringing positive comments and “smiles from people passing by.” “Anything that encourages people to use the litter bins provided is a good thing as we want to keep the district clean and tidy for all to enjoy,” the spokesperson added.

Ocean Garbage Patch Twice the Size of Texas: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch that floats between California and Hawaii is even bigger than scientists believed—about twice the size of Texas, specifically. “We were surrounded by an endless layer of garbage,” a marine biologist who works for the Ocean Cleanup, which ran a survey expedition that returned yesterday, tells the AP. “It was devastating to see.” Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat, the 21-year-old behind the Ocean Cleanup, says that “if we don’t clean it up soon, then we will give the big plastic the time to break down into smaller and smaller pieces,” though the San Francisco Chronicle notes that Slat’s expedition found about 80% of the larger plastic out there hadn’t broken down yet. “Based on what we’ve seen out there, the only way to describe the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a ticking time bomb,” Slat says. He believes he can clean it up in 10 years, using floating barriers that are fixed to the seafloor. Current ocean garbage collection methods use nets, which Slat says is inefficient. “By using floating booms instead of nets, much larger areas will be covered,” he explains on his Indiegogo page. “Not using mesh means that even the smallest particles will be diverted and extracted.” The campaign raised nearly $90,000, and other fundraising efforts provided the “Ocean Cleanup Concept” with about $2.2 million. Slat hopes to begin the cleanup in 2020.

Puppies Rescued from Recycling Bin: Tampa police are trying to figure out who would throw away at least one puppy, which was found in a plastic bag in a recycling bin. Police say someone called 911 to report that there were dogs thrown away in the garbage can in Tampa last Monday, Fox reports. When officers arrived, they saw a mother dog on top of a recycle bin, looking like she was trying to pull a puppy out. Officers pulled the puppy out of the garbage and the plastic bag, and is expected to be OK. He was the runt of the litter, at about 4 pounds. Police said three more puppies, which were female, were found underneath a nearby shed. All of the puppies were alive. Tampa Police Spokeswoman Andrea Davis said it wasn’t clear whether the mom pulled all the puppies out of the trash can and brought them to the shed, or if only one puppy was thrown out. “Either way, it looks like someone threw away at least one puppy and mom dog was in the garbage can trying to get that puppy out,” Davis said. Officers interviewed several neighbors about what happened and seemed to focus on a subject who appears to live at the address where the dogs were found.