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If You Build It, Will They Sort It? Composting in the Academic Library Learning Commons

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  • Sustainability initiatives in the library learning commons have long included paper and container recycling. But for those libraries that allow food consumption in study and learning spaces, collection of compostable food scraps and compostable food receptacles is not yet the norm. Tapping into the libraries’ core value of Sustainability, librarians at Oregon State University set out to implement a composting pilot project in the Library Learning Commons, the most heavily used space in The Valley Library. In Spring of 2015, the Library partnered with Campus Recycling services to conduct a 24-hour waste audit of all trash collected on its main floor. The results showed that over one third (35% by weight) of the trash collected during the audit period was compostable. With this much compostable waste going to the landfill each day, librarians set out to divert that waste into the existing campus composting program at Oregon State University. Preparations included centralizing waste collections points, researching and acquiring compostable bin liners, developing educational signage and promotional materials, and even running a pre-pilot which collected 74 pizza boxes in 4 days (!) during Spring 2015 finals week. Unexpected and ongoing challenges of implementation include reducing contamination in the composting bins, devising the appropriate displays to show students how and what to sort into the compost bins, and even convincing building custodial services that emptying 4 bins several times a shift is less work than emptying 40+ bins once per shift. If you build a library composting program, students will try to use it...some more successfully than others. This program will share lessons lived and learned on the way to developing a more sustainable way to handle compostable waste in the library learning commons. Presentation given at the Academic Librarian 4 Conference, June 2-3, 2016. Hong Kong.
  • Keywords: compost, academic library, learning commons, sustainability
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file details hussong-christian al4 2016.05.12.pptx 07/21/2017 Public
file details hussong-christian al4 presentation notes.docx 07/21/2017 Public