Supporting Green Libraries Week

This year’s Green Libraries Week runs from Monday 27th October to Sunday 2nd November. We’ll be showcasing how Awen Libraries are making a difference within their local communities with some of the ways they are helping to protect the environment.

• In 2024-25, over 327,000 items were borrowed, returned and borrowed again from Awen Libraries, including books, DVDs, iPads and even footballs. That’s a lot of reuse!

  
  

• Our diesel-powered delivery van, which transports books between libraries, has been replaced with a more efficient electric vehicle, to help reduce our carbon footprint.  

  
  

• We have installed LED lighting and a battery to store surplus electricity from our existing array of solar panels at Betws Library, as part of its recent refurbishment.  

  
  

• To reduce waste, the books we no longer use are either sent to Arts Factory (a social enterprise based in Ferndale) for re-sale, donated to children in Africa or recycled.  

  
  

• Since January, almost 10,000 people have visited our libraries to use the free, shared computers, helping to reduce energy consumption within individual households.

  
  

• We are working hard to provide eco-friendly prizes for the Summer Reading Challenge and 21 Book Challenge, to reduce the amount of single-use plastic we buy.  

  
  

• We reused the bookcases from the former Maesteg Library to refurbish Sarn Library and donated the remaining furniture to local schools for their school libraries.