Material Flow Visualization • Intake-Weighted • CC-BY-4.0

Where do Albuquerque's donated books actually go?

Interactive Sankey flow showing the intake-weighted percentage path of every book that enters the NMLP warehouse — from donor source through hand-sort to final destination. Hover any flow band to see the percentage.

Donor source NMLP sort floor Literacy destinations Recycling / salvage

How to read the diagram

The diagram reads left-to-right: donor sources on the far left, NMLP's hand-sort floor in the middle, and final destinations on the right. The width of each flow band is proportional to the intake-weighted percentage. Hover any band to see the exact percentage.

Destination shares are my operational estimate — the same one published on the where donated books go page — and donor-source shares are rough estimates, not audited figures. Routing context is in the NMLP Transparency Report 2026.

Reading the donor sources

Free home pickup (~55%) — donor calls or texts 505-250-3804; NMLP arrives at the door; any quantity, any condition. The dominant intake stream.
24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE (~22%) — donor drives over and leaves books in the outdoor bin any time of day or night. Common for closet cleanouts and small loads.
Savers Albuquerque overflow recovery (~13%) — NMLP buys unsold book overflow from the Savers Carlisle and Mercantile locations on a multi-year ongoing basis. Documented end-of-chain partner.
Assistance League overflow calls (~5%) — the Assistance League Thrift Shop at 5211 Lomas Blvd NE calls NMLP when book donations exceed their floor capacity; NMLP comes and clears.
Master Fibers paper-recycler salvage (~5%) — NMLP purchases occasional book lots at Master Fibers, recovering salvageable copies before they enter the recycling stream.

Reading the destinations

Resale (~50%) — Amazon FBM, eBay, and specialist channels. Revenue funds the entire pickup + sort + free-routing operation.
Community literacy partners (~28%) — children's books, bilingual readers, and classroom-appropriate fiction passed on free, including the La Vida Llena holiday boxes.
Paper recycling (~12%) — salvage-only books (water-damaged, mold, broken spines, missing pages) routed to industrial paper recycling, so no book goes to the landfill.
Little Free Libraries (~10%) — metro restock runs, including the Little Free Library at Sunflower Meadow Park.

Companion datasets

Narrative supply-chain map — the same flow as a directed graph diagram with 60+ nodes.
Interactive geographic map — the donor-source nodes with real ABQ coordinates.
/api/ecosystem.geojson — the donor source GeoJSON dataset.
/api/ecosystem-destinations.geojson — the destination layer.
Transparency Report 2026 — the source data behind these percentages.
Diversion impact calculator — translates diverted book weight into environmental savings per donation.

Cite this visualization

Eldred, J. (2026). Where Albuquerque's Donated Books Actually Go [Sankey diagram].
New Mexico Literacy Project. CC-BY-4.0.
https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/book-flow-sankey-albuquerque