 Roxy said this is our final presentation of the session and it is going to be our expert Q&A on Zero Waste with Angela Moore. And we're so, so pleased to have Angela here. She is a lead AP with a specialty in operations and maintenance, a true advisor and sustainability coordinator. And at the Missouri Historical Society, Angela oversees all the sustainable operations. Oh, and I have just lost my notes. Excuse me one moment. It went into full screen without my permission. There we go. So the Missouri Historical Society includes the Missouri History Museum, Library and Research Center and Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. Sustainable operations include greed building certifications such as lead, true and green dining certification for the restaurant located at the Missouri History Museum. It also includes community and employee engagement centered around environmental sustainability practices within the St. Louis community. The sustainability department consists of herself and a sustainability intern, Victoria Coleman. And Victoria helps with employee and community engagement and Angela works solely on green building certifications. So just as a reminder, Angela will speak about her work but the majority of this session will be an opportunity for all of us to ask everything we've ever wanted to know about achieving zero waste. So again, please use the Q and A function and not the chat box to ensure that we see your questions. So Angela, we're so pleased to have you here and thank you again. And we would love it if you just shared a bit about your background or anything that you want to start with to get so that we can then jump into the discussion. Okay, thank you so much, Kate. I'm so sorry that you lost your introduction. I think that happened when I started to share my screen. But as Kate mentioned, my name is Angela Moore. I oversee all of sustainable initiatives here at the Missouri Historical Society. One of the most popular initiatives that I have been talking about for the past year has been zero waste. But one thing is that the Missouri Historical Society, as Kate mentioned, is comprised of the Missouri History Museum, Soldiers Memorial Military Museum and the Library Research Center. Soldiers Memorial Military Museum is the first museum in the United States that have reached zero waste and have achieved a true zero waste certification. The Library Research Center is the next building that I will be leading towards zero waste. I'm quite excited. And the Missouri History Museum is a museum that more than likely I will not be going for zero waste but the gift shop in the restaurant all have certifications that focus on that. So a lot of people have, this is a term that's quite confusing. And zero waste, when people think about it, that means that they're not generating any waste whatsoever. And that's not the case. It is a waste practice that allows an organization to divert 90% of waste away from the landfill by means of recycling, reuse, reduction, repurpose, repair, redesign and re-earthing, which we won't really get into re-earthing because that's composting and this one is centered around conservation. And they also utilize circular economies to get to zero waste. And so I just wanted to give my information for anyone who have added questions after this presentation. Great. So thank you for explaining briefly about what zero waste means. And at your institutions, you define it in the same way. So it means that you're diverting 90% of your waste but then about 10% of your waste is still going to landfill. Can you just clarify that? Yes. So if you look at the definition of zero waste from Zoya, Zoya is the Zero Waste International Alliance. They define zero waste as the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse and recovery of products, packaging, materials without burning and with no discharges into the land, water, air that threaten the environment or human health. And so at the Missouri Historical Society, not only do we follow Zoya's standpoint of zero waste, we also follow true standpoint of zero waste and true is the acronym for Total Resource Use Inefficiency. And that's a zero waste certification that any site can go for to be zero waste certified but you do not have to go for a zero waste certification to practice zero waste. We at our organization usually go for green building certifications for transparency reasons. Thank you, Angela. So what motivated the Missouri Historical Society to pursue zero waste and the other sustainability initiatives that you have at these institutions was the idea brought up internally or were external factors also part of what drove that decision, IEG were their subsidies from the city or the state. Can you just talk a little bit about how the process got started? So zero waste came about actually as an afterthought. A lot of our buildings focus on LEED which is the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. So LEED is also a green building certification that covers energy, water, waste, indoor air quality. And transportation. And when we were going for the LEED process for Soldiers Memorial Military Museum, we had a really high diversion rate and it was close to 90% during that construction phase. And so that's when it was my aha moment because I said, okay, we can carry this out into operations as well. And so I collaborate quite a bit with my managing director. I report to the managing director. And when it comes to larger scale projects such as capital projects or projects that will last over a long period of time which is the zero waste project lasted two years. We kind of collaborate and we talk about it. And one of the things that came up when I was talking to her about this particular certification was an environmental report that came out for St. Louis region. And it was an environmental racial report that came out. And it highlighted eight areas that African-American communities were greatly impacted more so than other communities in St. Louis. And one of them talked about illegal trash dumping and handling of toxic waste from larger organizations. And so the true program came about that way as well. It was more of wanting to be more socially responsible and making sure as an organization we wanted to support this environmental racial report. And so we pursued that certification that addressed illegal trash dumping and handling of toxic waste for larger organizations in the St. Louis area. And we're one of the larger cultural organizations in St. Louis. That makes a lot of sense in that that reminds me too that in cultural institutions the community that is surrounding you and that really the institution serves is so, so important. And so that's a really nice way to make that connection to your community. How do you convey the museum's sustainable initiatives to your audience? We do that in multiple ways. So on our website there is clearly a tab for sustainability. So there's a whole page just dedicated all to sustainability. I have gotten lots of community questions through our webpage. So people ask a lot of questions of what we do for sustainability measures. If we have a large event they're asking how are you handling waste here? And so that is one way. Another way that we do this is because we're one of the few museums that have such a strong sustainability program. I do write quite a few case studies that are available to all. We try to do our best to share our experience and to share the blueprint. So with the lead and also with true any organization can go on to any of those websites to see exactly how we got there. And so that's why we kind of pursue those spring building certifications so that other organizations have a path in the blueprint to get there as well. And then I'm sorry Kate, then lastly we do have a curator of environmental life here. So he also curates exhibits that touch on climate change. One of them that's now being de-installed is the mighty Mississippi. It talked about waste, plastic waste in the river. And so we kind of talk about sustainability in multiple ways here at the Missouri Historical Society. That is incredibly wonderful. And it's incredibly wonderful that you're so generous with your knowledge and in all of these different ways including being here with us today. Can you, and this is a question from the audience can you just talk a little bit about your own background your education and professional experience and sort of how you got to this place? Okay, so my undergrad was in fine arts and I originally started off as an art historian. And when I went to pursue my master's degree within my area there was a museum studies master's program and it was wonderful. But there also was a master's in public policy and administration that piqued my interest and because museums were nonprofits and one other graduate student that was in a program also worked at the art museum. She said, I think this will be the path for us to really take to make a difference. So I did that instead of pursuing a master's in museum studies I pursued a master's in public policy administration with the emphasis on nonprofit management and leadership but during my graduate assistantship graduate research and during the program my studies were basically and research was basically all surrounded for museums. So that's kind of my background and I have a few certifications. I have a lead applied professional certification where I specialize in operation and maintenance of existing buildings. Museums are existing buildings and then I'm a true advisor where I advise organizations how to become zero waste. That's a little bit of my educational background. Wonderful, that is wonderful. And you, in your bio you talk about how this is really just all of this work is you and your intern. As museums think about achieving zero waste and other sustainability goals who within the institutions or even outside of them really needs to buy in to make this work successful. What partners or communities or organizations do you recommend institutions really get to know or reach out to achieve zero waste? So internally your leadership team fortunately I was positioned in a good place where starting my second year I was promoted and I was assigned in a senior leadership team in operations and who I report to is the managing director of administration and operations and she's in the executive leadership team. And so us together partnering together kind of makes a great impact on our leadership team but if you're not positioned where you are making those changes from a leadership level you will need to have micro teams. So you'll need to have micro teams in housekeeping, facilities, operations and those are actually the three key departments. When I started the zero waste certification I created a micro team in housekeeping. So I went to the director of facilities and said hey I have this opportunity I would like to make this museum zero waste it's never been done before but I think that this will be a great opportunity and I think that housekeeping holds the key to this and they did. So for that certification of soldiers I partnered with two housekeepers and we went through a lot of training together we did a lot of zero waste events around St. Louis and so those are key. Externally you wanna partner with organizations that have the same vision as you. One of the organizations we partnered with for many years in St. Louis here which was known as recycling on the go. They did large scale events where they taught the public how to recycle what goes into recycling what goes in composting and what goes in landfill. And so you wanna partner with those organizations but then if you're actually going for a zero if you're going for a zero waste certification you need to partner with the US Green Building Council your local chapter. They have so many free opportunities to bring your building that's available to museums. That's amazing and it's really wonderful to hear too and Kelly touched on this and her talk too how important that relationship with facilities can be and is there, are there conservators or a conservation lab at your institution? Yes, so that is the next site that I will be starting a certification. They started their certification actually this month. So yes, so the library and research center is where the majority of our collection is and so yes, we have a conservationist there, archives. We have librarian. So and it's a pretty large building and I'll be working closely with them over the next two years to make that site zero waste. That one it has more processes than the museum had but everyone is quite excited at that site and I'm quite excited to lead them through their process. Can you share with us any ideas that you have initially? I know that this process is just starting but about how to minimize waste in conservation labs? So one of the first steps will be to find out where does waste originate? That is your first step. Where is it originating from? I think a lot of people think of it at the end point. Where is it going? Is it going to recycling or are we putting in a landfill or are we repairing it? But when you have a zero waste approach, you need to figure out where is your point of generation? And so from a conservation standpoint, what is the vendor that you work with the most? And find out what products they're giving you and reach out to them and say, do you have a buy back program? Do you have a take back program? Do you partner with another organization to recycle the materials that I have already used? And once you do that, you get the conversation going. And I noticed from our experience here at the Missouri Historical Society, they wanna keep us as a vendor. And so they say, okay, we know that they're environmentally friendly. We're gonna maybe partner with them with this. And they'll say, okay, we'll take these back and we'll recycle with this organization for you. And so then we do an extra step. If they say they're gonna partner with us with another organization, we make sure what is the end market of that material. So once they take it back from us, where is it going? And what is it being made into, recycled into, repurposed, upcycled to? So that's the first step for your conservation team is to identify points of generation. So the first step that I had for the Library Research Center this month was, I handed out bins and I said, put everything, all of your waste in a bin. And it is waste that it is specialized for your field. So if the average person looked at it, they would not know what it was used for. And so I told everyone at the Library and Research Center, all departments, put all of your waste in a bin and we're gonna create a kit for every department and identify a vendor that is gonna take this waste for us, recycle it, repurpose it, upcycle it to get us to zero waste. That's so exciting. And it really just, you know, like I think conservators, we often think of our field as so small and so niche but it really does show that maybe not necessarily us but the institutions that we work for do have a lot of power and a lot of sway and we can really use that to have a positive impact if we just contact them. So I love that. I'm gonna try to do it myself. I think that that's just really inspiring and exciting. You'll be surprised, Kate, at how vendors change. We had a vendor that packaged all of our cleaning products in plastic baggies and just a simple call that said, hey, we really don't want to use plastic bags anymore. Can you just package our items in the box and we'll deal with the spillage that happens? And they did and I later learned that they stopped that practice altogether from another organization. And so you can really make an impact just by a simple act. That's so inspiring. That's so wonderful to hear. And so this question, this next question is from the audience but it does sort of touch a little bit upon this. Just what are some additional examples of waste disposal processes that have been revised to meet zero waste goals? So one thing I'll touch on is repairs. I know a lot of organizations, they do repairs but we really do repairs. So we partner with other organizations for repairs. So if we have a vacuum that goes down, we partner for repairs. And even smaller things that you wouldn't think that an organization should repair, we repair, such as furniture, we repair. A little chair, someone has an office chair that broke instead of just throwing it out, we repair it. And so just, that's one example. Another example is mop heads. I know that's a simple example but we send those out to be laundered. We don't continuously buy mop heads. Another example that I know will touch on everyone is gloves. How do you recycle these gloves, right? And so we do two programs to recycle gloves. We do the Kimberly Clark Right Cycle Program where if we buy Kimberly Clark gloves, they'll take them back and recycle. But then we also do for those straight gloves that are left over, we do a tarot cycle box. And so we put all of those gloves in a tarot cycle box to recycle those. But the one way that we do address it, as I mentioned before, is we just refuse it. We don't add products that we don't need. So we really keep a tight eye on what we acquire. And then that lessons what you have to do on the back end to recycle or use it or repair it. That's incredibly helpful and just amazing. And have you found that that has saved your institution a lot of money overall? Oh yes, oh yes, and you will be surprised if you just go through the process of where your waste is being generated in, it then ends at facilities and they can say, oh, so you're telling us we don't need this large dumpster and no, you can actually, I know at the Missouri History Museum and our Library Research Center, we almost half the size of our dumpster and it saved us thousands of dollars in one year. So imagine, I mean, we are institutions that are around for centuries. So you can just imagine how much that saves. If you're cutting operational costs, that means that those funds can be diverted to so many other means other than waste. Yeah, that's incredible. And I love hearing more stories like that in one of the book clubs that Roxy and I host one of the attendees shared that they, I believe it was they did some facilities work to seal the envelope of the building a little bit better. Roxy, feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm wrong, but they saved 300 jobs. So that money that you are saving in making these environmental changes can go toward museum salaries, which I think we would all love. So it's just incredibly inspiring to hear that. I do have another conservation based question. And I don't know if you and the conservation team there have thought about this yet, but we use a lot of very specific materials in conservation and that includes organic solvents and acids and bases. Do you have any plans to deal with the disposal of those materials? Yes. So that was the same case for Soldiers Memorial. There was a conservator at that location as well. And so we do, we work with local vendors. I see, and then for the Zeroy certification, you have to log each chemical, how is it used? What container it came into and how was it disposed of? You have to keep those records on file for five to seven years. And so I do, I work with local vendors here in St. Louis to do a lot of the handling of those materials to make sure that at the end point, it's not going into the landfill or it's not being dumped into one of the lower social economic areas of St. Louis. So we have addressed that, but I think it'll be at a greater scale at the Library Research Center because I'll be working with archives, libraries, film. And so I'll be working with textiles. I'll be working with all of those departments. And so I think once I really get started on that Library Research Center, it will be a very different case study than what I had with Soldiers Memorial because I'll have multiple departments that handle multiple different materials. And so that's kind of how we have addressed it. And so our first step was to gather up all that unusual waste and then start to find vendors for that unusual waste. And I will say this, you will always find a vendor for it. I know in St. Louis, I know that we're not the biggest city in the United States, but if we can find vendors to handle that in St. Louis, I guarantee there are multiple vendors in the United States and worldwide that will handle it. And that reminds me too, do you try to use local vendors exclusively? Always. We try to do that always. We try to use local and minority vendors as much as we can. So for the most part, yes. So for our cleaning products, yes, we use a local minority vendor. For the cleaning products at Soldiers, we use a local woman-owned vendor. So yes. And so the reason why is to increase circular economies within our region. And so if we're addressing waste, but then now we're offsetting CO2s from what's coming in, it's almost like we're taken away from our goal of being less wasteful because now we're being wasteful in another resource. So yes, we always try to strive for a local vendor. I think that's so wonderful. I forgot completely what I was going to say, but we do have a few more questions. And I guess I want to touch a little bit on COVID and just in the past year and a half, we've really seen an increase in single-use, disposable, plastic materials in particular. How has the Missouri History Society addressed that and how you've still been able to be zero waste during the pandemic? Oh, yes. You can still be zero waste during the pandemic. You just have to understand what items are truly single-use items. So if we look at masks, those are truly single-use items, but how about providing visitors and staff with cloth masks? And so that's what we do, since we had a mandate, but it's since been lifted that all visitors and staff are required to wear masks. We made sure that visitors knew you're able to purchase a mask in our gift shop. And we offer that first before offering the disposable paper mask for all staff. All staff was issued multiple cloth masks that they can monitor and wear to work. And so that was the first option that we gave staff was to have cloth masks that they can monitor. When it came to cleaning products, we already refined cleaning products in larger amounts, bulk amounts. And so we really did not have to alter that too much. We continued to buy in larger bulk amounts and through local vendors. And so you get less single-wrapped plastics with different cleaners and hand sanitizers. So we got the larger-sized hand sanitizers and we continuously refilled staff, tiny little pocket sanitizers. So that's just one way you can still practice zero waste even during the pandemic. That's really wonderful to hear because it has been really disheartening to see so much disposable materials just increase. And were you able to still do it at the restaurant as well? I think that's where I notice it the most is like a lot of places that may be offered more reusable options have now really switched to a lot of sort of closed or wrapped plastic materials. Well, I know our restaurant fell to the consequences of a lot of restaurants around the country. So our restaurant was not open at all during the pandemic. But prior to the pandemic, they were Green Dining Alliance restaurant. So they had to follow all of the regulations of a Green Dining restaurant in St. Louis. So prior to the pandemic, they did not offer disposables. So were very few disposable containers. And now that we are reopening later this month, it still holds true. They will be a Green Dining Alliance restaurant. And so they still will offer reusable silverware. And it's a full service restaurant. So they have multiple dishwashers that they can use to reuse silverware for. That's wonderful, that's wonderful to hear. I have a question from the audience. Do you foresee a wider trend for museums establishing in-house sustainability officers? And what will this mean for emerging professionals and professional development education within the cultural heritage sector? I do see it. There's very few of us now. I've only met four of us. And two of them have been recruited away to cities. So I only know of two others who have sustainability in their title. And I do see it being a trend. And the reason why I say that is because museums have to start coming into line with the external environment of what is happening outside of the sustainability world. And more and more of the public and communities, disadvantaged communities are demanding that larger organizations become more socially responsible. And sustainability is one of those issues. You need to become socially responsible, Lane. And I do see it happening as well because from me being here for my short period of time of five years, I'm astounded at how much this institution have saved just by pursuing an elite certification, just by pursuing true. They have saved thousands of dollars in areas that I did not even imagine that they would. And so I do, I see more organizations pursuing sustainability coordinators. And it does take a lot of training, I will have to say that. Although I've been in this world five years, I'm still learning about sustainability. And for museums is quite unique because a lot of sustainability programs and training focus on offices. And we know museums are more than just office spaces, right? And so that's why I try to make as many case studies as I can and partner with the other two organizations that have sustainability officers. We do our best to try to share with other museums what we have learned for free. The information is open for all of us to get there. And so we do our best to try to say, okay, we're officers in this institution. This is our path that we have taken. This is our successes and these are our fails. So we have definitely shared quite a few fails. And so I do see it being a trend and museums will have to be a little more responsive in the area of climate change going forward. I love how you're so open and it's clear it's very important to you to share as much about sustainability as possible, which really reminds me of Catherine Hayhoe's belief that the more that we talk about sustainability, the more we can inspire others to do it. And with that in mind, do you know if there are any plans for the conservators to publish or share anywhere this process as they go through zero waste? Cause I think that could be incredibly helpful for our field. I'm going to actually post that to them and I think they will be quite open. They're very excited to be the first library and conservation area collections area to go zero waste. And I think that they will be quite open. I know that I have partnered with them quite a bit on indoor air quality. So I know that they will be more than happy and I know that I will hope to create a case study with them. So I'm going to post it to them when I see them tomorrow and see how open they are to documenting the process. Maybe we'll do a video or a photo or... It definitely will have a case study because it's a requirement for the certification. Oh, great. But I'll see how we can catalog it and so that others can follow it step by step some way. Cause it's a long process. It's a two year process, but I'll figure out how we can update and others on that process. Yeah, that would be really amazing. And I don't know if you can see the chats from Roxy, but she's very excited also. And I guess the sustainability committee too, in general, you know, like, I don't know if we could interview you all or something. We can talk about that another time. But it's really, it's incredibly exciting to hear and really wonderful. And I do have another conservation related question. I don't know if you're familiar with the materials, Mylar at the Foam and Valara. They're other sort of conservation specific materials and a member of our audience has asked just about their disposal. They're polyethylene foams. Yes, yes. Those have come up at our institution more than once. I have tried to find ways to dispose of those. That's only one method that I have found. And we had what was called a recycling extravaganza here in St. Louis. And there was a company here in St. Louis that would take foam for you, like a large, large amounts of foam. I have since then, have not been able to contact that vendor. And that was two years ago. And so we have called on to it until we can figure out what to do with it. I even looked into buying one of the foam compactors where you would compact it into a smaller size. But that equipment is just so astronomical and we need the space to install it. So then definitely will be one of materials. If the question is, if someone can leave their email from who posts a question, once we address that at the library, I'll make sure I share how we address it, if that's possible, if they don't mind sharing that. Sure. Yeah, so if that, if, let's see if I can pull the question up again. But yes, if that person whose name maybe I won't say, but I do know who it is, wants to type in their email in the Q&A, only the panelists will see that and we can make sure that Angela has that perfect. She has done it. And if any other members of the community too are also curious to hear that, maybe we could share that information in other ways once. We have it because I know that that is really a question that comes up a lot for conservation. And sort of piggybacking on that actually, Roxy has asked what the conservators use for packing art because often those materials are used for shipping out loans, et cetera. Do they? I have to look. I know for a fact there's Tyler whose picture, who was pictured on the right-hand side of the chair. In that processing area that they use, they, I don't know if the exact material that they use, but they do have a shelving of all reusable. So they keep it. And even if it's just a tiny piece, they continue to pack it. Once I get over there and start listing and cataloging more, I can find that out. For Soldiers Memorial, they have very little packing and where the storage was located in the undisclosed area was close to the museum. So I don't remember seeing any packing and very little styrofoam from that soldier's location. So I'll have to look back to my catalog of waste for packing to see what they use and what we do with it. But I don't remember weighing that at all because you have to measure all of your waste. I don't remember putting that in the scale. Oh, okay. Interesting. It would be really interesting to hear about this process in some way because it's fascinating. And it sounds as if they are already sort of in a sustainability mindset and kind of thinking of a lot of creative ways to reuse materials already. So that's okay. Oh yeah. They were there way before I got here. Okay. So in 2012, the staff had a green committee and they were implementing measurements way before I got here. When I got here, it became the point of we need more innovative ways. We need data. We need you to look at statistical data. We need you to look at core funding for us to do more capital, bigger capital projects for energy, waste, water, native plants. So I came on as the, okay, we've done all the small things. Now we need somebody to look at our data, analyze our data, benchmark our data, and also funding, right? Great. And to talk about the triple bottom line. So that's kind of where I came in it. But the curator of environmental life, he has been here over 15 years, I believe. So as you can tell that dialogue was already happening internally. And my managing director of administration operation, she's been here 40 years. And so she was already having that dialogue. We had an addition added on to this museum in 2000. She designed it for it to be a sustainable museum. So they already had this culture of sustainability here. And so when I came, I have to say, they were looking for me as, okay, we've done all that we could physically do as staff and a committee, we need now a dedicated staff person to take us a little further. So they already laid the path, a nice path for me when I came in. It sounds like a really special place. I hope that I get to visit one day. We have a comment from the audience that some museums are donating foam scraps to artists or for school projects. I don't know if that's something that you do in some form maybe for other materials too. We do that for other materials. So as our institution is quite large, so we have a K through 12 education and then we have a youth and family education. So they have tons of supplies for youth for homeschool days. So they do, they partner with an organization called Perennial here in St. Louis. And Perennial is a repurposed reuse organization and they create all kinds of things from objects that organizations donate. And then Perennial comes back into the museum and shows us how to use items that we have multiple of. So it's a nice relationship that we have. So yes, we do, we do quite a bit of donating from larger items to smaller items. That's really wonderful. I worked at institutions where we were not allowed to do that and I don't know if that is a New York city rule. Was it always the case that you were able to donate or did you have to get like a special permission? I don't even know how it works, but I found it really frustrating and surprising that we weren't able to make donations. We worked with our finance team so to put a value to it, right? So we have to have a value to it in a process of letting it go. But yes, as long as I've been here, we donate and the library research center is now going through another compact shelving project and all that old shelving that they have will be donated to a smaller, tinier museum here in St. Louis, African-American, smaller African-American museum here in St. Louis. So now they get really nice shelving because we're upgrading to compact shelving. So yeah, we usually find ways to donate items. Even during COVID, we gathered vast loves, donated it to our local hospital and we just always put a monetary value to it for prior to donating. Okay, that's good to know. And I feel like we've sort of been touching on these ideas, but I think, in our sort of general understanding of being sustainable, we talk a lot about recycling. And I think a lot of people don't realize that there's actually a hierarchy to the four hours or the five hours or how many hours people are using at the moment. And that recycling is actually one of the last things that we wanna do. So can you talk a little bit more about other ways that you refuse or reduce or because you definitely touched on repurposing and reusing the materials? One of your first things is to redesign. Redesign how your organization is set up, redesigning. And it doesn't cost much, but redesign it so that your landfill trash and your recycling trash are right next to each other and you're gonna educate. You're gonna reeducate what goes into this landfill and what goes into recycling. Don't put your recycling all the way across the room and your landfill all the way across the room because most of the time the landfill is the one that most people gravitate for. So redesign is one way that you get to zero waste. You're gonna redesign how your organization looks at waste and then you're going to repurpose. So look at things that you can repurpose. What we do most of the time is donate. Another area that we look at is reuse. Prior to COVID we had a office swap every year. So every year there was an office swap and it was held at the history museum and all buildings came and I wish I could show a picture of the one that we had and people just come and shop. They shop the organization. And so that's one of the ways. But I'm glad that you Kate that you mentioned the recycling and yes, recycling is right above, is the third one from the bottom. The very bottom is incineration, burning trash and then second to the bottom is landfill and then you have recycling. So recycling and landfill is right next to each other but the other R's is you're gonna find reuse and another one is refuse that I talked about. Refuse adding more things to your organization that you do not need and then start to look at certain areas that have multi-uses. So don't buy for a one use item, buy for a multi-use item. And so that's one of the areas you can get to zero waste is change the way you think of things. One way that I think of it is I grew up in a lower social economic group and it wasn't called sustainability and it wasn't called zero waste when I grew up. It was called not wasting. If you don't want it, don't take it. If you're not gonna use it, don't touch it. Don't even look at it. And it was just, it's a mentality shift of just not a mentality of scarcity but a mentality of just respect and honoring everything that went into that material from the energy, the water, manpower that went into that material. And so when you look at it from that standpoint, you say, okay, I don't really need it so I'm not gonna take it. So that's kind of the holistic approach to zero waste. That makes just so much sense. And it reminds me too often of how in museums, especially larger institutions, some of the more well-known ones, everything really has to be new and sparkly. And I keep thinking too about new exhibitions that can use materials. And is that something that you do as well? Yes, yes. And you know what's so funny? The exhibits team was the first team when I got here that was so excited. And they are so good about reuse. So when a de-install is happening, which a de-install is happening right now, we have contracted with a company called Leader in St. Louis. And they recycle all of that construction, de-install material for us. And then we have someone in the exhibits department that comes and de-install all items that can be reused. And then they have a storeroom and they haven't so organized of items that can be reused on the next exhibit. And so I wish I had the other PowerPoint. We actually did a present, exhibits team did a presentation on that. And they talked about an exhibit that we had recently, Route 66. And they talked about how much we reused and repurposed in an exhibit. And people were just astounded at how much we reused and repurposed in exhibits to create the Route 66 exhibit, which was a few years back. But the exhibits team is great. They provide diversion rates for me. They'll say, this is the diversion rate. We diverted away this percentage. One time they diverted away 99%. So they were really close to 100%. And so of course I treated them with lots of chocolate and stainless steel straws. Okay, that is so wonderful. I feel like I would just want to see like an exhibit on how all of this was done. I should try to do a time-lapse video if they, if they will allow me. I think they will be quite open to that. That, yes, that would be, it would be incredible. Rocky C. is mentioning to me that we're having a lot of interest in the comments about people wanting to know how the foam helps us out. I just wanted to make sure you knew that. And I think, I think I could keep asking a million questions, but we're running a little bit low on time. So if anyone has any last minute questions that they want to try to sneak in, no, okay. Well, Angela, I cannot thank you enough. This was so fascinating. And I just want to hear about everything. I'm sure Roxy and I will like be in touch and try to find additional ways that we can collaborate and amplify all this really wonderful work that you're doing. Thank you so much. Thank you. And for anyone, please reach out. As I mentioned before, as an organization, we want more organizations to do what we're doing too. And so reach out questions, comments, suggestions. I'd love to hear it all. Yes, I want to echo that. Thanks, Angela. I think maybe creating some kind of like how to make your lab zero waste would be a really fun collaboration. But anyway, we can talk about that offline. But yeah, so thank you to Angela and Kate. And thank you, of course, to our other speakers as well, who are so wonderful. We're coming right up to two. So I'm just gonna jump in because I also could probably talk to Angela all day. But yes, we also wanted to thank our colleagues at AIC, Elena Greg, who is our staff liaison and Ruth Saylor for all of her work making this meeting possible. And yeah, so for anyone who has more questions, thoughts for Angela, obviously you can reach out to her or any of the other speakers. But also if you wanna just email our sustainability committee directly, I've put the email in the chat. So we'd love to hear about any kind of exciting initiatives that are going on around the field. We know of what we've heard of, but we don't know of everything. So we would love to hear more and we'd love to highlight different people who are doing really interesting and innovative things. So if you do have any ideas or want to be featured, please let us know and we will reach out. We're about to expand our committee to 10 people, which is super exciting because that means we will have a lot more manpower to do these things. So thank you everyone for joining us and please have a great rest of your day.