In early 2023, our library became part of Suffolk County Cooperative Library System’s new Sustainable Libraries Initiative, to ensure the continued ability of the library to serve our community in the best way possible. This involves evaluating our library to become more environmentally sound, socially equitable and economically feasible.Â
Check back here for updates on this exciting new endeavor!Â
Dozens of patrons attended our first annual craft swap. Patrons dropped off supplies and craft items that were no longer needed and others were able to take home new treasures. What a great way to save money, keep items out of the landfill and create new projects.
We debuted our new Propagation Station where patrons can donate or take plant cuttings. Prior to unveiling this new service, Cornell Cooperative Extension presented a lecture where participants learned about plant propagation methods.Â
♻️ Center Moriches Public Library is embracing a net-zero waste mindset by finding a new use for board games with missing pieces. With the help of teen volunteers, we created a free collection of miscellaneous game pieces, keeping incomplete games from ending up in the landfill! đź“° Stop by and check out our “missing pieces” collection today (located in the lounge area near the cafe)!
Celebrate Pollinator Week with books from the library! Check out our recommended titles below.
“Pollinator Week 2024 is a celebration of the vital role that pollinators play in our ecosystems, economies, and agriculture…These essential creatures, including bees, butterflies, moths, bats, beetles, and hummingbirds, are the unsung heroes behind the food we enjoy and the beauty that surrounds us. As we reflect on the interconnectedness of our world, let’s unite in a collective effort to protect and preserve these crucial pollinators.” Learn more at https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week
As part of our library’s sustainability journey, we have assessed the amount e-waste and paper that has been recycled at past events conducted by the Town of Brookhaven on our library’s premises. See the stats below! That is a lot of community recycling!
*Please Note: The next Town of Brookhaven sponsored Special Recycling Event at our library will be on Saturday, October 19th, from 9:00am-1:00pm. For more information visit https://www.brookhavenny.gov/368/Special-Recycling-Events.
Our library’s sustainability team has come up with tips for more sustainable transportation. Check out the infographic below!
Every Saturday our Sustainable Libraries Initiative Team posts a sustainability related “fact of the week” to our library’s social media accounts. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok and see what’s happening at the library! Check out the carousel below for previous facts shared by our team in 2023 .
October 22nd, 2023 – NexTrex® Plastic Recycling Challenge UPDATE
Our community and library have recycled 1,221 lbs of eligible plastic bags and films! We are amazed at the momentum this impactful initiative has gained and we will continue to be a drop off location/partner in 2024. Have you had a chance to relax on the Trex bench on the back lawn? Be sure to check it out on your way into the library!
September 2023September 13th, 2023 – We are NexTrex® Plastic Recycling Challenge WINNERS!
???? ???? ???? Our library has exceeded the NexTrex Challenge goal of recycling 500 lbs of plastic bags and films! As winners, we have received this high quality composite bench made from recycled materials, which is now located on the lawn at the back of the library. Thank you to all in the community who have participated in this ongoing initiative! *Please note: Our library will continue to be a plastic bag/film collection location. The NexTrex donation box is located in the entry corridor of the library. See the list of recyclable items at https://nextrex.com/view/educate.
August 22nd, 2023 – NexTrex® Plastic Recycling Challenge UPDATE
We have met the 500 lb goal! For our community’s efforts, we will soon be receiving a free Trex bench, which we hope library patrons will enjoy for years to come. Our community has already recycled 579 pounds of plastic films and bags, and there are still 2 months left in the NexTrex Challenge! Thank you to all who have participated in this impactful program so far.
July 2023July 25th, 2023 – NexTrex® Plastic Recycling Challenge UPDATE
Our community is ROCKING the NexTrex Challenge!!! We only need to collect 146 more pounds of plastic bags/films to reach our goal. Let’s keep up the amazing work and win that Trex bench! See list of recyclable items at https://nextrex.com/view/educate.
Thank you to all of our patrons and community members who have participated by dropping off their plastic at our library to be recycled!
July 6th, 2023 – News Article
Check out the July 2023 edition of The Tide of Moriches and Manorville, featuring an article on our library’s “Missing Pieces” project, organized by teen volunteer Delaney Mattiolo!
Read the article HERE.
Have you lost some of the pieces to your Monopoly game? Can’t use your Yahtzee game because you don’t have all the dice? There’s no need to toss your game because you don’t have all the pieces to play! Thanks to the time and efforts of local teen volunteer Delaney, we now have a box that contains “Missing Pieces” to common games! Located by the puzzle exchange cube in the lounge area, you can take what you need to complete your game at home. A special thank you to Delaney, for organizing this project!
June 22, 2023 – NexTrex® Plastic Recycling Challenge UPDATE
We are 2 months into the NexTrex® Community Recycling Challenge and so far we have collected 145 pounds of recyclable plastic! We are off to a great start and appreciate all who have participated/donated. Help us meet our goal of collecting 500 pounds of plastic! If we do, Trex® will donate a high-performance composite bench to our library for patrons to enjoy. For details and information on what plastic types are recyclable as part of this program, visit https://nextrex.com/view/educate.
April 22, 2023 – NexTrex® Plastic Recycling Challenge Kick-off
Our library has entered into the NexTrex® Community Recycling Challenge! For the next 6 months our library and community will continue to collect eligible soft plastics in the corresponding bin, located in the library’s corridor near the inside entrance to Hampton Coffee CafĂ©. Please visit https://nextrex.com/view/educate for details! If we can collect more than 500 pounds of plastic in a 6 month span, Trex® will donate a high-performance composite bench to our library for patrons to enjoy. Please bring your eligible plastics, clean and dried, to our library for recycling; simply drop your items in the NexTrex® bin and pat yourself on the back for helping to make our world and community a better place!
April 22, 2023 – Earth Day Sustainability Celebration
Our library’s first annual Sustainability Day Celebration was held on Earth Day this year, with a total of 34 patrons of all ages participating in the day’s special activities and raffle. We enjoyed seed paper making, recycled book black out poetry, cardboard tube seed starting, educational videos, organic seed library, seedling and kitchen scrap gardening display, books displays, and more! The library also kicked-off the NexTrex® Challenge, collecting eligible plastic films from the community and sharing information about this 6 month initiative/challenge. Thank you to all who came by and shared in this special event! Stay tuned next spring for details on Sustainability Day 2024.
March 21, 2023 – Waste Audit
On the first full day of Spring, March 21st, 2023, members of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative team completed our Trash Audit. For one full week, we safely collected the garbage produced at the library (excluding restrooms) with the intention of discovering what type and quantity of waste we are producing. For reference, during this one week period we had 4,084 patrons visit giving us an approximate daily average of 510.5 patron visits per day. With this information, we would be able to more effectively set our goals and determine best practices regarding waste reduction, recycling, and waste diversion.Â
After sorting and weighing our collection, we came to a few surprising observations as well as some not so surprising. Of the 83.95lbs of waste, 17.6% of it was recyclable, leading us to think that perhaps we can come up with more effective ways of streamlining recycling in the building. One of the items in the recycling category was magazines and while that itself was not surprising, we discussed the possibility of developing a mechanism to put out free magazines to the public for teachers/students to take and/or making arrangements with a nursing home to rehome some of the magazines. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the number of glass items and plastic water bottles was very small. We only had 1 glass bottle and we attribute that to the partnership the library has with the Town of Brookhaven providing us with a glass recycling container onsite.Â
An observation that came as quite surprising to all of us was that only 3.3% of the waste was compostable. Considering the library not only has a full staff kitchen where many eat their meals, we also have a cafĂ© that serves food. While we did not collect waste from the cafĂ© during the collection, we did collect the waste from the library’s lounge area that is adjacent to the cafĂ©. Â
The most surprising observation we made was the amount of paper towels that were present in our waste. Considering we did not collect from any restrooms, there was an excess of paper towels. This will be discussed at length at future SLI team meetings to determine what we can do to mitigate the amount of paper towel waste the library produces. Another surprising realization we came to was the amount of garbage bags being used.Â
One of the categories of waste we used was “other” which made up 10% of the waste we collected. In this category we placed items that perhaps required more research, thought and examination. In this category we placed books and while there was only a small number, these books were deemed unusable at the time of discard. We plan on investigating ways of properly recycling books that are no longer able to be used as they were intended. Another interesting find in this category was the amount of disposable coffee cup lids. While we were pleased to see that some parts of the disposable coffee cups could be recycled, we would like to see an increased use of reusable coffee cups.Â
March 2023 – News Article
Our library’s recent sustainability efforts were highlighted on page 12 of the March 2023 edition of The Tide of Moriches and Manorville.
