What have you done for Mother Earth lately? Donated more than 10,000 pounds of clothing and other reusable items to charity? Collected 103,000 gallons of water from your dripping air conditioner? Fed your excess fish to the wolves?
If your answer is 鈥淣one of the above,鈥� you must not be one of the top business recyclers recognized this month at the city of San Diego鈥檚 25th annual Waste Reduction Awards Ceremony. But that doesn鈥檛 mean you can鈥檛 learn from them.
With arriving on April 22 and San Diego鈥檚 taking over Balboa Park on April 23, it鈥檚 time to kick your ecological engines into high gear. Whether it is Point Loma Nazarene University鈥檚 guilt trip to 鈥淢ount Trashmore鈥� or the Hazard Center鈥檚 adventures in composting, here are some expert tips for doing your small part to beautify the bigger picture. Wolves not included.
Tip No. 1: Back to basics
It begins with the bins, even for the people who have a bunch of them. If you want to do your part to reduce waste, you can start by knowing what goes in your blue recycling bin and what goes in your black trash bin. Styrofoam packaging and plastic clamshell packaging? Blue bin. Food wrappers and Styrofoam food and drink containers? Black bin. Glass jars? Blue bin. Wine glasses? Black bin.
Confusion? Everywhere.
鈥淧eople still struggle with what plastics you can and cannot recycle. It is not easy,鈥� said Brendan Reed, director of environmental affairs for the San Diego Regional Airport Authority, one of five Outstanding Achievement Award winners. 鈥淭he city provides a lot of great material on that. We call the city of San Diego all the time asking for suggestions and input.鈥�
To educate yourself, go to the city of (), which has information on everything from how to reduce food waste to finding someone who will recycle your mattress. Click on the link for the indispensable, which tells you which items go in which bin, which items can be composted and which items qualify as hazardous waste. You can reach them by phone at (858) 694-7000. (Speaking of hazardous waste, San Diego鈥檚 next is April 22 at Montgomery High School.)
For another small step with big impact, embrace the state鈥檚 ban on single-use plastic carryout bags. Keep a stash of reusable shopping bags in your car and a compact carryall in your purse and/or backpack. You might think it doesn鈥檛 matter, but you would be wrong.
鈥淲hen our rescue team goes out to return animals (to the ocean), it is not unusual to see a plastic bag floating on the water,鈥� said Dave Koontz, director of communications for Outstanding Achievement Award winner , which eliminated all single-use plastic bags from its gift shops in 2011. 鈥淯nfortunately, sea animals will mistake those bags for jellyfish, and they will ingest that. We have pulled plastic bags from inside animals we have rescued. We have seen how detrimental these bags can be to animals in the ocean.鈥�
Tip No. 2: Give it away now
In the waste-reduction world, the three R鈥檚 stand for Reduce, Reuse then Recycle. You can knock off the first two by donating the clothes, furniture and electronics you don鈥檛 need to nonprofit organizations.
The Hazard Center complex in Mission Valley 鈥� winner of a Rising Star award 鈥� holds an annual recycling event in which tenants can shred old paperwork, recycle electronic waste, and donate clothes and furniture to Father Joe鈥檚 Villages. And last year, students and staff at Point Loma Nazarene University, a frequent winner of the city鈥檚 Recycler of the Year award, donated more than 10,000 pounds of clothing and other items to schools and orphanages in Mexico.
鈥淲e recycle e-waste, we recycle scrap metal and food waste, and we do a lot of donations, especially around move-out time at the end of the semester,鈥� said Trisha Stull, the university鈥檚 sustainability officer. 鈥淎s a Christian university, we feel we are called to be stewards of the environment and God鈥檚 creation, so that philosophy is built into our sustainability initiatives.鈥�
For help on your own sustainability initiatives, the San Diego Rescue Mission, Father Joe鈥檚 Villages and Goodwill San Diego offer pick-up services for larger items or big collections. All three organizations also have multiple drop-off sites.
Tip No. 3: Don鈥檛 fear the compost
Like other waste-reduction award winners, SeaWorld and Hazard Center are part of the city鈥檚 Commercial Food Waste Recycling Program, where meticulously sorted food scraps are processed into compost, which can be purchased at the at the Miramar Landfill. (City residents can self-load up to two cubic yards of compost for free, with proof of residency.)
If you want to take the composting plunge, you will have to do your composting at home. The city鈥檚 compost voucher program provides residents with discount vouchers on one of three styles of compost bins. The city also offers free workshops and a more in-depth Master Composter Course. For information and forms, go online to the Environmental Services , or call the 鈥淩otline鈥� at: (760) 436-7986, ext 222.
鈥淲here I used to live, I had a little composting container in my backyard, and it was actually kind of fun,鈥� said Jayne Vanderhagen, property administrator at PMRG, which manages Hazard Center, where the food-service tenants are composting more than 18 cubic yards of food per week.
鈥淚 had this little decorative pot with a lid, and instead of throwing that broccoli spear down the garbage disposal, I would put it in the pot and put it out with the composting. Then you just kind of stir it up, and you鈥檙e done. It鈥檚 a lot easier than you think it鈥檚 gong to be, and the dirt was amazing.鈥�
Tip No. 4: Get creative
When SeaWorld San Diego finds itself with an excess of fresh fish, that fish used to end up at a rendering plant. Now, it is donated to feed the animals at the California Wolf Center, a nonprofit conservancy and research center near Julian. When members of the Point Loma Nazarene sustainability staff want to remind students about the importance of recycling, they construct 鈥淢ount Trashmore,鈥� a guilt-inducing pile made from recyclable waste retrieved from the campus鈥� trash bins.
And when an operations employee at the San Diego International Airport noticed that condensation from the air conditioning units under the passenger boarding bridges was leaving big puddles on the ground, the Airport Authority put 55 gallon drums at 14 gates, a small thing that ended up saving 103,000 gallons of water last year. The water was used for cleaning equipment, power-washing sidewalks and dust control at airport construction sites.
Whether you are a big business or just a big-hearted citizen, there are ecological rewards for thinking outside the box. Just don鈥檛 forget to break down the box when you鈥檙e through. It goes in the blue bin.
鈥淚 always say, 鈥楾ake baby steps,鈥欌�� said Steve Weihe, recycling specialist with the city of San Diego. 鈥淓very day is a challenge, and if you can do something every day, you are getting to that goal.鈥�