Gainesville library lists drop-in craft day on giving household castoffs a second use
Gainesville's official calendar named Ms. Emma of the Texoma Council of Governments as leader of a session for children ages 6 through 16 making ladybugs from egg cartons and bracelets from bags.
Gainesville children ages 6 through 16 were invited to the library meeting room on Wednesday, Oct. 7, to turn egg cartons into ladybugs and bags into bracelets, according to the city's official calendar. The listing for Reuse Recycle Craft Day said children could walk in without registering ahead of time.
The session was set for 4 to 5:15 p.m. at 200 S. Weaver St. The city named Ms. Emma of the Texoma Council of Governments (TCOG) as the craft leader. The notice confirms the council's part in the program. It does not say whether the council was the only sponsor.
Teaching children to reuse things fits work TCOG has described since at least 2020. In its fiscal 2020 annual report, the council listed education on waste reduction, reuse and recycling as part of its municipal solid waste program. The report tied that education to saving landfill space and planning for growth.
That space is tighter here than across the state. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality figures for 2024 gave the TCOG region about 32 years of remaining landfill capacity, compared with roughly 51 years statewide. The same agency reported that the yearly tonnage sent to Texas landfills grew by nearly a fifth between 2016 and 2024.
Estimated landfill reserve capacity left in the Texoma Council of Governments region, 2024
The statewide estimate was 51 years.
TCOG's 2022–2042 regional solid waste plan, part of its Aug. 19, 2021, board packet, called for encouraging local governments and school districts to adopt source reduction, reuse and recycling programs and to buy goods with recycled content. The plan also recommended that the region estimate and publicize each year how much waste those efforts divert.
Recycling costs led to a service change in Sherman. That city suspended curbside recycling effective June 15, 2020, and offered a drop-off option for sorted materials. Its official explanation said loads it had once taken without charge were costing $150 a ton.
What Sherman said recycling loads it once took without charge were costing
Sherman suspended curbside recycling effective June 15, 2020, and offered a drop-off option for sorted materials.
Libraries in the area have advertised other craft programs for young people. Sherman Public Library listed sessions on Oct. 6 for ages 13 to 15 and 16 to 18, with no tickets or signup required. Closer to home, a 2015 TCOG summer guide advertised free weekly Cooke County Library classes that paired books with crafts. One group was for toddlers through age 4 and another for children 5 to 10.
TCEQ also publishes a kindergarten and first-grade lesson in which students use discarded cardboard rolls and fabric to make puppets, teaching that thrown-away materials can have another use.
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