Our Sustainability Challenge this month is all about fixing things and finding other uses (or homes) for items instead of throwing them away – and we’ve got plenty of support for your efforts!
On Friday, March 7, the Young Adult Department will be sorting seeds from a garden and packaging them for new homes through our seed library.
We will host our annual Repair Café on Sat., March 15 from 1-4 p.m. See if our volunteers can help you fix something instead of discarding it.
On March 24 and 25, we’ll be accepting donations for our Craft Swap, which will take place on Sat., March 29. Re-home your craft supplies and find new-to-you ones!
The children’s department will host their annual Trashion Fashion event, in which kids make wearable art from recyclable materials then participate in a fashion show to show off their creativity.
Even our Seed Library and Propagation Station get in on the fun: Take some seeds or a cutting, leave some seeds or a cutting.
And, of course, we continue to collect plastic film such as newspaper sleeves, produce bags, cereal box liners and bread bags. Help us keep these items out of the waste stream!
For more information about the aforementioned programs, please see our newsletter or website calendar.
Upcoming Events
Get into the holiday spirit with our festive Holiday Wrap Party!
Join designer Elizabeth and learn how to create these sweet giving cards or tags inspired by nature.
Tweens and Teens are invited to drop into the YA Library to play on a variety of video gaming systems setup with preselected games. This will not be a quiet library night! No registration required.
Help us bring attention to cat and kitten adoption by decorating a tote bag for a new cat owner. Make one tote and earn a maximum of one hour of community service. For SHPL cardholders in grades 6-12. No registration required.
Recommended Reads
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We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers
After Charlie convinces Lola to recycle her old toys instead of throwing them away, Lola discovers a recycling competition. If she can recycle one hundred plastic, metal, and paper items, she can get her very own real live tree to plant. But she only has two weeks, so Lola decides to ask her classmates to help. They turn out to be extremely very good recyclers indeed.
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Earth-Friendly Crafts
With a focus on recycling, this book features an assortment of picture frames, message holders, pins, and puppets. The twenty-one simple crafts reuse cardboard boxes, stray gloves, and socks. Recycling tips are scattered throughout. The step-by-step illustrated directions are clear, and the supplies can be readily found.
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Upcycle
In this inspirational and practical book, 24 international product designers show you how to recreate their upcycled designs. Inspired by the trend for recycling and craft, readers can follow the designers' step-by-step instructions and create their very own piece of high-end upcycled design for the home. Projects include a clever waterproof mat woven from marine rope, a geometric lampshade made of strips of Tetrapak carton, a hanging rail using leftover copper plumbing pipe, decorative floral arrangements made from old plastic bottles, a cane chair upcycled as a cross-stitch canvas, and many more.
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Recycling and Upcycling
Learn how recycling has grown in popularity over time and find out what kinds of careers are involved in this rapidly growing industry.
Calling All Innovators series introduces students to careers in science and technology. The complex text allows readers (Grades 5-8) to determine the main idea and explain how it is supported by key details. From leftover food to packaging materials to outdated or broken technology, humans produce an enormous amount of waste. Readers will find out how some of today's top innovators are working to find new recycling methods and cut down on the amount of trash the ends up in landfills.
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How to Give Up Plastic
An accessible guide to the changes we can all make—small and large—to rid our lives of disposable plastic and clean up the world’s oceans
How to Give Up Plastic is a straightforward guide to eliminating plastic from your life. Going room by room through your home and workplace, Greenpeace activist Will McCallum teaches you how to spot disposable plastic items and find plastic-free, sustainable alternatives to each one. From carrying a reusable straw, to catching microfibers when you wash your clothes, to throwing plastic-free parties, you’ll learn new and intuitive ways to reduce plastic waste. And by arming you with a wealth of facts about global plastic consumption and anecdotes from activists fighting plastic around the world, you’ll also learn how to advocate to businesses and leaders in your community and across the country to commit to eliminating disposable plastics for good.
It takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to fully biodegrade, and there are around 12.7 million tons of plastic entering the ocean each year. At our current pace, in the year 2050 there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish, by weight. These are alarming figures, but plastic pollution is an environmental crisis with a solution we can all contribute to. -
101 Tips for a Zero-Waste Kitchen
Kathryn Kellogg is taking her accessible tips for a zero-waste lifestyle and focusing on the heart of the house. Our kitchens can produce a shocking amount of waste and, even though food scraps may seem harmless, they can't properly decompose in a landfill. What's more: wasting food can strain your wallet. The average American family of four will lose $1,500 annually on food waste. It's time to turn things around!
101 Tips for a Zero Waste Kitchen is your guide to reducing waste in your kitchen. Kathryn will teach you how to buy in bulk, avoid unnecessary packaging, upcycle jars, and more. Plus, she'll give you recipes that make use of your scraps: preserve your lemon peels for extra flavor, create simple syrup from strawberry tops, and revive shriveled mushrooms. With a little work and Kathryn in your corner, you'll have the tools you need to reach the ultimate goal: no produce left behind!
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Zero Waste
In this fifth installment in Allan Drummond’s picture book series about green living, a town in Japan takes a stand against its throwaway past and shows that it really does take a village to make sustainable change.
Kamikatsu, Japan is known worldwide for its sanitation innovations. This small community of 1700 people is leading the way in recycling and up-cycling, and as of 2022, had nearly achieved its goal of zero waste. Told in Allan's hallmark narrative style, Zero Waste is the story of a group of citizens who dared to break out of their comfort zone and make radical change for the good of their town and the planet. Through the eyes of two children visiting their grandmother, this inspiring addition to the author’s acclaimed Green Power series about everyday communities inventing exciting new approaches to green living shows that working together for a common cause has an impact that is lasting, meaningful—and fun! -
Make, Sew and Mend
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
OVER 50,000 COPIES SOLD
Learn the historically proven stitches every seamster needs with beloved historical fashion YouTuber Bernadette Banner.
Whether you are just getting started with sustainable fashion and need to alter your new secondhand finds, or you want an introduction to sewing techniques for making your own clothes, Bernadette Banner’s signature voice will guide you through all the traditional stitches and techniques you need to extend the life of your favorite pieces and take fashion into
your own hands!
From tips and tricks on choosing your materials and preparing your fabric for sewing to more complex techniques like mending small holes, adding pockets to garments, making your own buttons and beyond―this book has everything you need. Complete with step-by-step photos and insight into what alterations each sewing technique is best suited for, Bernadette walks you through every step of your sewing journey.
For added inspiration, this book also includes profiles on exciting voices in the historic sewing community and their perspectives on how taking fashion into their own hands has changed their lives for the better.
Make, Sew and Mend is the perfect foundation for beginner sewers to start making their fashion their own. -
Good News, Planet Earth
Sustainability enthusiast and climate activist Sam Bentley shares details on the hopeful developments combatting the effects of climate change, while giving readers actionable steps to help play their part.
If you feel like climate change and the state of our planet just keeps getting worse and there’s nothing we can do to stop it then you’ve picked up the right book–because tons of efforts are already underway to save our planet, and we’d love for you to join the fight.
Good News, Planet Earth is your go-to guide to learn about all the amazing sustainable developments that are being put in place worldwide to combat warming temperatures, pollution, deforestation, the use of wasteful products, and threats to our diverse wildlife.
Sustainability enthusiast Sam Bentley takes you on a journey around the world to teach you about everything from the net-free zone established in the Great Barrier Reef, a road that charges electric vehicles while they drive in Detroit, and the opening of carbon capturing plants in Europe that suck CO2 out of the air and store it safely underground.
Good News, Planet Earth includes:- 25 categories covering topics like recycling, energy use, and food consumption
- 100 actionable steps you can take to fight climate change and live more sustainably
Whether you’re seeking an uplifting and hopeful climate action book for yourself, or the perfect gift for the environmentally conscious person in your life, Good News, Planet Earth is the small but mighty book that might just help save the world.
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Not the End of the World
This "eye-opening and essential" book (Bill Gates) will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems--and explains how we can solve them.
It's become common to tell kids that they're going to die from climate change. We are constantly bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, and that we should reconsider having children.
But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. In fact, the data shows we've made so much progress on these problems that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in human history. Did you know that:- Carbon emissions per capita are actually down
- Deforestation peaked back in the 1980s
- The air we breathe now is vastly improved from centuries ago
- And more people died from natural disasters a hundred years ago?
Packed with the latest research, practical guidance, and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you've been told about the environment. Not the End of the World will give you the tools to understand our current crisis and make lifestyle changes that actually have an impact. Hannah cuts through the noise by outlining what works, what doesn't, and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.
These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality.