EDCO proposes green waste recycling facility in East County

http://www.nctimes.com

EDCO Waste and Recycling Services will apply for a major use permit for a green material processing, recycling, and composting facility this year. The facility would be located on a 197 acre site on Betsworth Road in Valley Center.

According to the North County Times, the facility would accept leaves, lawn clippings, brush, and other organic material that would otherwise go to landfills. EDCO expects that 406 tons of green material will be hauled to the site daily. EDCO currently plans to use covered, computer-monitored composting bins to turn the green waste into soil enriching products.

For more information about the proposed project see the full article by the North County Times here.

Please note: the views, conclusions, findings, and opinions of the author are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Solana Center or the County of San Diego.

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Bag Monster Spotted in Encinitas

There was a sighting of the internationally known “Bag Monster” early Wednesday morning at Paul Ecke Central School. The “Bag Monster” lamented over being kicked out of Ireland, South Africa, San Francisco, Malibu, Manhattan Beach and the Town of Fairfax (by overwhelming public vote in the recent election!) – expressing his desire to keep a “home” here in Encinitas. Rest assured that the mighty 4^th graders turned the “Bag Monster” away with their Oath to remember that their “job” is to remind their family and friends to use reusable shopping bags over paper or plastic whenever they shop. Rejected yet again the “Bag Monster” blew across the room and out the door – threatening to send his “Sister Bag Monster” over to City Hall make a plea to the Mayor & City Councilmembers.

Don’t let the Bag Monster take over your city… use a reusable bag!
December 18, 2009 International A Day Without a Bag

City of Encinitas: A Day Without a Bag information

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Commercial Composting a Huge Success

Image Courtesy of ArlingtonTimes.com

Businesses in Arlington, Washington are now able to save some money by sending their compostable organic material to a large-scale composting center. The center has a lower rate for collections, and businesses can escape the 3.6% Washington state refuse tax since compost is considered a recyclable material.

So that’s all well and good, but how much compostable material is being produced from these businesses? A typical restaurant’s waste consists of 65% compostable organic material, 30% recyclables (glass, tin, cardboard, etc), and only 5% garbage. Only 5% of a restaurant’s waste actually needs to be thrown away. 95% of it can be re-used in some way.

Restaurants aren’t the only target of this program. The city is hoping to get grocery stores, coffee shops, cafeterias and school kitchens, and even hospitals to sign up for the program.

Cascade Valley Hospital signed up and, after an audit, went from only recycling cardboard to recycling almost every form of waste they had – cardboard, paper, glass, metal, plastic, and food waste.

A company in the area, The Markets LLC, has calculated that it has reduced its landfill use by 50% in its stores.

The city of Arlington is less than 10 square miles in area. Imagine if a program like theirs was adopted in a larger, more developed city like San Diego. It would be a step towards achieving sustainability and reducing our use of landfills.

Here’s the original article.

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He’s How Old?

How often have we seen something and thought to ourselves, “Now why hasn’t someone invented something to do that?” Well, little Ryan Nicholls didn’t wonder why it hadn’t been invented. He actually invented it. All at the ripe old age of 8. And no, that’s not a typo.

image courtesy of Stuff.co.nz

Now what is “it” and why did he invent it? Ryan, from Auckland, New Zealand, was tired of having to take out the compost. So he created a machine to do it for him. His machine, the Waste-Away, separates mulched food scraps and collects in a composting bin. Once enough compost has been collected, it can be taken out just like normal compost and spread over the yard.

Even sustainability experts have chimed in to praise the ingenuity of the invention, saying that it could help revolutionize household composting. In fact, Ryan’s invention was so good, he won $10,000 (NZD) in a competition on the TV show Let’s Get Inventin’.

Now 9 years old, Ryan Nicholls is believed to be the youngest inventor to obtain a patent in New Zealand.

Read the original articles here
and here.

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Solana Center celebrates its 25th Anniversary!

The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation invites you to celebrate our 25th Anniversary on Friday, November 14th, 2008. We will be celebrating our history as San Diego’s first curbside recycling program and growth into County-wide environmental education and outreach programs. Join us for fun, music, food, and a silent auction!

Tickets are $25
Friday, November 14th, 2008
6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
1050 Crest Drive, Encinitas

Click here to R.S.V.P.

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Chula Vista Greenwaste Diverted from Landfills

In a step towards a more sustainable future, Chula Vista’s yard trimmings and green materials will no longer be sent to landfills for Alternate Daily Cover starting January of 2009. Instead, the waste will be used as soil amendments and mulch in San Diego County, cutting down landfill expansion by about 20,000 tons per year.

Alternate Daily Cover (ADC), as noted in an article by KPBS last month, is a major cause of environmental concern in Southern California. By using green waste as ADC to cover local landfills, San Diego cuts down on the rate of reuse and recycling of organic material in our agriculture. San Diego’s three major landfills were also observed to be releasing more than 50% more methane in to the air than otherwise predicted. Methane is one of the major contributors to global warming, having almost 21 times the effect on global warming compared to carbon dioxide.

In order to cut down on this impact, Allied Waste Services and Plant’s Choice, Inc. have started converting organic waste (such as yard trimmings and vegetable scraps) in to soil amendments for local agriculture. An expected 2,000 tons of waste will be diverted from the Otay landfill every month. The mulch and soil amendments produced will then be reused in the San Diego agricultural community, leading to a healthier and more cost-effective local crops. This program also helps San Diego get closer to achieving Zero Waste status.

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Con-posting: Inmates turn food scraps into compost

Inmates at Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Littlerock, Washington have devoted their time and passion to composting or, as they like to call it, con-posting. They have other endeavors as well, all of them garden and nature related. They compost all of their food scraps with worm bins.

Vermi "con-posting": red worms make their way to prisons and correctional facilities

They recycle old shoes into playground turf. They even have a beefarm – complete with a bee expert convict. These inmates are very proud of the fact that they produced 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables this year. 8,000 pounds – that’s 4 tons. That’s the same weight as a full-size SUV.

Prisons and correctional facilities have been growing at a rapid rate. In 2005, there were 1,800 facilities. In 2000, that number was only 1,650. Furthermore, these facilities suck up resources around the clock. In 2007 alone, $49 billion was spent to provide for 2.3 million inmates. Due to the increasing number of facilities and the resources they require to operate, many are now facing pressure to reduce waste and conserve energy and water. To meet these demands, many facilities are finding alternative energy sources. Some have installed water boilers that run on waste wood chips. Some are turning to turbines for power. Others are harnessing energy from the sun and using solar panels. Not everything is that high-tech though. To combat water shortages, some inmates have converted old pickle barrels to capture rain water.

Becoming greener not only benefits the facilities and the environment but also the inmates. While no scientific proof has been found to illustrate the rehabilitative properties of being green, there are many inmates who speak to its healing ways. There is a story of one inmate who even pursued a doctorate and helped co-author a research paper once he got out.

To read the original North County Times article, click here. For more information about Washington State Department of Corrections’ sustainability goals and compost programs, click here.

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Earthworms – saviors of the planet?

A new development of robotic super suits will now allow us to have a whole army of Earthworm Jims who can defeat evil and save the world from the clutches of doom. If only this were true.

We are not going to have super hero earthworms who can help us save the world. Or are we? Researchers and scientists from Purdue University have been conducting a study on the earthworm’s effect on not only the soil, but also the climate. Their main focus is studying the effect that earthworms have on forest chemistry by studying the carbon composition of soils with various levels of earthworm activity.

Image courtesy of http://www.news.uns.purdue.edu

What they have found is that soils with high levels of earthworm activity tend to have carbon sequestered deeper in the soil. Bacteria cannot readily reach the carbon and degrade it – releasing it to the atmosphere. The earthworms eat the “litter” (leaves, surface decaying matter, etc) on the forest floor and then release the carbon deeper in the soil. Since it is harder to degrade this carbon, scientists believe this can lead to a buildup of carbon in the soil. This is preferable to having the “litter” stay on the surface of the forest floor and undergoing natural oxidation, thereby releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

Great. So why aren’t we throwing tons and tons of worms into our forests to help with carbon sequestration via soil? Well, like most things in life, this comes at a cost. Earthworms would leave the forest floor with a bare surface. A dark, bare surface would attract more heat (remember dark attracts heat, light reflects it?) and, therefore, dry out the soil a lot faster. Researchers believe this could effect things such as soil temperature and snowmelt.

Another problem is that earthworms could be eating microorganisms that aid in the distribution of nutrients in the soil. This would disrupt the timing of nutrient delivery.

Read the original article here: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2008b/081029JohnstonEarthworms.html

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Composting Video on the Union-Tribune’s San Diego Alive

San Diego Alive, A Video Health and Fitness Forum, by the Union-Tribune recently featured the Solana Center Compost Program with a quick video on the basics of composting. Also featured is Anna Orzel-Arnita, a San Diego resident, who shows off her backyard composting using Earth Machine compost bins.

Many thanks to Peggy Peattie for featuring composting on her segment!

http://interactives.signonsandiego.com/sandiegoalive/

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Composting at the Convention: Denver Green

Watching the democratic national convention, you may be surprised to hear about one exciting trend taking place away from cameras: composting at the convention. The convention organizers are hoping to divert 85 percent of the waste created by the event to recycling and composting instead into the landfill. Volunteers are organized in mass to educate the delegates and public about recycling, composting and how to properly separate each out each into the three-bin-system set up at the convention center and other events around town.

Read more about it in this Denver Post article:
Dems’ favorite color for convention? Green
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_10293045

Also, here’s an article in the Washington Times on the sorters themselves
Those who sort also serve
http://www.washtimes.com/weblogs/trail-times/2008/Aug/27/those-who-sort-also-serve/

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