FEBRUARY 2024

Update on our Storage Facility Building located at Walnut Lane Park

The building is complete, and the public works crew has moved in!!

Meeting information, including agendas, can be found on our website

February is Love Your Library Month

By: Susie Hawkins

Show us some love this month by checking out books, attending programs, and stopping by to say hello! While you’re here, don’t forget to browse our Blind Date with a Book display. Check out their dating profiles and take home your perfect match!

We’re looking forward to another gardening year with our seed library, but we need donations to keep the program going.

Give some saved seeds from your garden or purchase non-hybrid seed packets to donate. Let’s keep the Community Seed Connection sustainable!

We have great events this February! Check out these highlights:

January 15 to February 19: Beanstack Winter Reading Challenge - Make an account on Beanstack by using this link and join the Chester Springs Library Winter Reading Challenge. Read 10 hours and write a book review to be entered in a raffle to win 4 tickets for the Franklin Institute! All ages welcome.

February 3: Take Your Child to the Library Day - Bring them in to enjoy a special craft. Pocket Full of Kisses from 10:30 am to 12 noon, or Snowflake Mobiles from 1 pm to 2:30 pm. No Registration. While supplies last.

February 6 @ 10:30 am: Winter Sowing Workshop - Get a jump on growing your seedlings outside during the winter using a recycled milk jug and learn a few seed-saving techniques too. Register here. Please put your name on the waiting list, if necessary, as this class fills up quickly.

February 8 to 14: Make a Valentine’s Day Card - Supplies will be available at a craft station for you to make a Valentine’s Day card for someone special. All ages welcome!

February 19 @ 10:30 am - 12:30 pm: Winter Carnival Summer Reading Fundraiser- Support the library’s summer reading program while enjoying a fun-filled morning of homemade games. Donate $5 for 10 game tickets and win a small prize each time you play!

Explore all our events on our e-calendar here. We hope to see you soon!

“We need your input! On January 29th, we will be launching our Customer Satisfaction Survey, which will be available until March 1st. With your help, we can advocate for and convey the value of libraries to the State, County, and municipalities that support us. The survey will also be available in Spanish if needed. Please take the survey here.”

LET’S RESOLVE TO BE TRASH SMART

Patti Lynn, Recycling Resources Manager

What does it mean to be Trash Smart? It means to be more thoughtful and

engaged in how you manage solid waste in your everyday life. It is behavior.

If you buy that new thing, what will you do with the old thing? How can

you stop wasting food? What does “away” mean when we throw stuff

away? This Trash Smart series will address different household waste streams, and today we start

with recycling.

We make about 30,000 decisions in a day. If we consistently make the right decisions about

recycling, then recycling right becomes a good habit, and your mind can focus on other decisions.

How can you recycle right?

▪ First, go to your municipal resources or your private recycling hauler and print out the list

of acceptable and unacceptable materials for recycling where you live. It may also include

the collection schedule. Post that list in a spot near your recycling container. Don’t know

what to do with that plastic takeout box? Look at the list! Done!

▪ Yes, plastic is confusing. At least know that you should be recycling plastic bottles that

have a neck (think water, milk, juice, detergent). It’s the other plastic containers that give

us a headache. If in doubt, check it out. Not everything can be recycled!

▪ Universally NOT accepted in your recycling bins: batteries, food waste, plastic bags, any

hangers, wire, diapers, scrap metal. Look at your list! And throw away anything smaller

than a credit card; this includes bottle caps.

Why is it important? Chester County is a scenic, diverse community of 534,000 people. Some

benefits of our collective recycling efforts:

▪ Municipalities earned nearly $1M from PA Recycling Performance grant awards in 2021.

▪ Our two local landfills, Lanchester and SECCRA, have more years to take your trash. More

than 310,000 tons of recyclables were diverted in 2021.

▪ That’s the equivalent of saving 33M gallons of gas.

To sum it up, get your local recycling list and post it up. Focus on what is acceptable. Empty, clean,

dry, and loose materials (not bagged; but paper bags for paper are OK). And over and over again.

It’s not hard – it’s Trash Smart