Workplace sustainability

Also (while I still have a few more minutes before flying back to work) have been taking stock of the sustainable practices in my workplace. The biggest one is paper recycling, something you would be irresponsible not to have in a library with the veritable mountain of paper students go through in copies. In my department the paper is not so much in printing and copying but with publications that get recycled when we no longer need them and the usual junk mail that accompanies our daily mail delivery.

Two of the women I work with have been doing neat, crafty things with old CD's and other items that would normally be discarded. I'll hopefully include more of these in another post, but wanted to show off the most functional of these.

The first photo is of one of the two towel holders they made for the main women's restroom on the first floor, and these come in handy when the custodians put in a new roll of paper towels and leave the old one for continued use by the side of the sink. The stack of CD's keeps the paper towels off the usually damp surface by the sinks, and ensures that the rolls won't just get tossed when they've absorbed too much water.

The second photo shows what the holder looks like without the roll. As you can (hopefully) see, the core is made from a wooden dowel with toilet paper holders that would normally get tossed after using. The whole thing is glue-gunned together, further demonstrating the almost magical abilities of this great invention. Thank you, inventor of the glue gun, and thank you, S. and D., for all your efforts at workplace sustainability!