Thanks to the Johns Hopkins Office of Sustainability, we’re now offering a new pen recycling program in the M-level copy room. Bring any unwanted pens, pencils (wood or mechanical), highlighters, markers or even white-out pens and drop them in the bright orange box by the staplers.
This new program is managed by a company called Terracycle. Rather than sending this waste to the landfill, they recycle it into new consumer products like faux lumber and park benches. As if that’s not good enough, for every item we collect, the Office of Sustainability will receive $0.02 to be used towards sustainability-related expenses like incentive programs!
Here at the library we don’t just recycle pens—there are a number of other recycling initiatives within the building. You can also leave batteries in the M-level copy room for one-stop recycling. All trash bins throughout the library are now grouped with recycling bins to make doing the right thing the easy thing. And on Q-level we even offer composting for your coffee cups, food scraps, etc.
We’re always looking for new ways to be sustainable. If you’ve got any ideas, please add them to the comments below.