Hi everyone,

My library is in the process of withdrawing a large number (5 digits) of bound periodicals and government documents. We thought we could just cut the covers off and throw them in the trash, while recycling the "meat" of the volumes as paper. Cutting off covers actually saves a little time in terms of stamping and marking.

However, our recycling company has come back and said they can't deal with the volumes because of the glue in the binding. We would have to chop or saw the spines off so all they have to deal with is the actual paper.

Anyone else run into this problem? And have a solution besides "send it all to the landfill"? I know PVA is used in commercial library binding and PVA is recyclable to plastic but perhaps it contaminates paper recycling. We don't have a guillotine in the library building, which I imagine would be the easiest way to chop off book spines.

Thanks,

Diane Westerfield

Colorado College

diane.westerfield@coloradocollege.edu