---
title: The Dirty Details of McKeldin’s Trash
date: 2025-05-06T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/the-dirty-details-of-mckeldins-trash"
section: Articles
---
# The Dirty Details of McKeldin’s Trash

*May 6, 2025* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10)


> Library’s Waste Audit Gathers Info With Goal of Improving Sustainability

*Mc Keldin Library Waste Audit 05022025 DS 8368 1920x1080 — Kai-Lee Butler '27, left, and Jessica Janney '25, recycling coordinator with UMD's Facilities Management, examine the recycling code on a plastic cup at Friday's waste audit of McKeldin Library. Volunteers sorted through a day's worth of McKeldin's trash to see how much and what kind of waste library visitors are creating.*

Gloves were plentiful. Full-body plastic suits were available. “If you feel like you’re going to be grossed out by any of the liquids, put one of these on,” warned Jessica Janney ’25, a recycling coordinator with UMD’s Facilities Management. On top of a long row of plastic tables, heaping garbage bags oozed, their dripping residue collecting on black tarps laid out on the ground. Smells, all of them unpleasant, wafted through the springtime air.

On Friday, roughly a dozen volunteers gathered for two hours to sort through a day’s worth of garbage from McKeldin Library as part of the first-ever waste audit of the University of Maryland’s main library. They tore through just over 88 pounds of waste, categorizing each item they encountered and dumping them into corresponding trash cans, as part of an attempt to get a better idea of how much and what kind of waste is being produced, and how to manage it more sustainably.

The waste audit is also a requirement of the [Sustainable Library Certification Program](https://www.sustainablelibrariesinitiative.org/), a national initiative designed to help libraries become more sustainable, to which UMD Libraries belongs.


*student examines bag of trash on McKeldin Mall — Julia Ethan '24, MPH '25, left, the sustainability graduate assistant for UMD Libraries, and Janney sift through some of McKeldin's trash.*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)



**Units:** [University Libraries](https://today.umd.edu/topic/university-libraries), [Facilities Management](https://today.umd.edu/topic/facilities-management)