In an effort to limit our plastic waste, we have altered the way that we process new books. Previously, we hand-laminated all paperbacks, and machine-laminated all books with dust jackets. This is a common library practice and is meant to protect items allowing them to circulate longer. However, the benefits of lamination do not necessarily outweigh its environmental impacts. To be more sustainable, we are now only adding small pieces of book tape to protect the barcodes and spine labels, and circulating the books ‘au naturel’.

This initiative comes after a six-month investigation into the use of plastics in the Library. We found that processing books was the most plastic-intensive process related to the collections. During this time we produced 2.8kg of plastic waste, most of which consisted of plastic backings from hand-laminate sheets. The monthly average was 460 grams of processing-related plastic. In January, our first month of reduced-plastic processing, the amount of plastic waste plummeted to only 80g. That’s 5.75 times less than we previously used, which seems like a promising start!

We will continue this experiment throughout 2022 to ensure that books remain in good condition. However, please note that unlaminated books are more susceptible to damage - so take care with our items, particularly when returning them through the book drop! We appreciate your help in this regard and we look forward to sharing more sustainability initiatives in the coming weeks and months.

If you have any questions or feedback about this initiative, please contact us at library@ecuad.ca