Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Food Waste Recycling at the Public Library?

A few years back, we had a small victory when the Princeton Public Library changed the top on its recycling bin in the cafe to make a dramatic contrast with the trash container. This change, along with a consistent pairing of the two containers, has led to excellent separation of trash from recyclables.

This success, however, has made more clear another issue, which is that the trash can is overflowing with paper products that could be combined with kitchen scraps and composted, further reducing the amount of the library's cafe trash going to the landfill.

A third container is needed, along with an arrangement to have the library added to the route with other downtown entities (I think Teresa's restaurant is an example) that already have compostibles picked up by a commercial hauler.
Though these receptacles don't win any awards for looks--I saw them at a Johns Hopkins University cafe during a visit--they show that such a setup is appropriate for a cafe.

The concept here is to take advantage of a public setting to show that composting should be the norm. It could also be used to promote Princeton's curbside compostibles program.

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