Area cows are sitting on your old phone books.

Despite recent cutbacks in its efforts to recycle, the University has started a major effort to recycle outdated telephone directories for animal bedding.

The project is headed by the Office of Physical Plant and is assisted by the student group Eco-Action.

OPP approached Eco-Action for help with the project, said Joe Concannon, a group member. Eco-Action will collect the directories from the dorms and campus buildings.

"Nearly 50 tons of Bell and Donnelley directories were distributed on campus last year," said Phillip R. Melnick, manager of support operations and special programs for OPP. "No special preparation is necessary to recycle the directories, but it is critical that they be placed in the specially marked barrels and not mixed in the blue barrels with other recyclable paper."

Although phone books are recycled the same way as newspaper, Melnick said, it is cheaper than recycling newspapers because it only has to be done once a year, as opposed to every day.

One student called the program beneficial and easy.

"You have to throw your phone book away anyway, so you might as well put it somewhere where it can be put to use," said Jill Weinberger (sophomore-philosophy).

The books will be collected by members of OPP and Eco-Action and will be taken to the Centre County Solid Waste Authority recycling facility at Dale Summit. There the books will be shredded and sold to farmers as animal bedding.

Extensive work has been done using newsprint instead of straw or wood chips for animal bedding. The paper is mechanically shredded and can be used much less expensively than traditional forms of animal bedding, said John Comerford, assistant professor of dairy and animal science, adding that another advantage is the higher absorbancy levels.

But local farmers have found it even less expensive to collect and process their own newspapers.

"We gather up the papers throughout the community and haul them home and grind them," said Jay Houser of Spring Mills, adding that the only disadvantage is the labor involved.

Some students living off campus haven't heard about the program.

"If we knew about the program we would have done it," said Larry Pruss (senior-economics), who said he already threw his book away.

Collection bins are located in dorm areas as well as entrances of most major campus buildings, OPP workers said.

The recycling project is scheduled to last about six weeks.