Eco-friendly Halloween Costumes & Crafts

Today’s blog comes our Hotline Assistant, Ani and it’s just in time for this weekend’s festivities! If you’re in need of some DIY inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. Read on to learn more about our favorite Halloween costume and decoration ideas that keep the earth in mind! 

“What are you going to dress up as for Halloween?” …that is the big question this month. The one time in the year when you can be Superman and no one would question it! Instead of purchasing a costume (that you might see someone else wearing at a party), tap into your creative side and make your own costume! Here are a few of our favorite DIY costumes that our staff have done over the years!

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Our staff members take Halloween seriously. Best part? We use what we already have in our closets to help reduce waste!

Speaking of parties…thinking of throwing a spooky bash? Here are some  eco-friendly Halloween decoration ideas to get you started:

These simple DIY decorations are made out of cardboard tubes (yes from the toilet paper rolls) and construction paper. For a full tutorial click HERE

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Cardboard Tube Creatures are fun, festive, and best of all? Reusable & recyclable!

Check out these decorative pieces made out of wine bottles! All you need is some spray paint and glitter (optional). Click HERE for the full tutorial.

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DIY Halloween wine bottles are easy to put together with a little creativity and paint!

Spook some people with your creativity! Before you toss your aluminum cans into the recycling bin, give them a second life as Frankenstein tin cans! Add a couple wine corks to the sides for bolts, googly eyes, and you’re set! Check out the steps for this DIY project click HERE.

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Frankenstein tin cans are easy to store with your other holiday decor or toss them in the recycling bin (after removing the corks & googly eyes).

When November 1st comes around, remember to store your creations for next year or recycle them in your curbside blue bin. For more DIY Halloween decoration ideas follow us on Pinterest, you will also find some scary-good costume ideas. Don’t forget that the best thing about Halloween is making your costume! Check out our Affordable and Eco-Friendly Halloween Costume blog for inspiration. Also, be sure to share your creations with us on Facebook and Instagram, we’d love to see them! Happy Halloween gals and ghouls!

Water Savings in Action

Last month, I Love A Clean San Diego and Media Arts Center San Diego came together to create a short but educational video to help San Diegans conserve water. Here’s a behind the scenes look at our video shoot!

DSC00017I Love A Clean San Diego’s Board President, Eric, is a water saving pro, so it was only fitting that we used his home as a backdrop for our video. He and his family have made all sorts of changes – some small, some large – to make their home more water wise.

When we pulled up, we were in awe of his front yard. He recently removed all of his grass and shrubs, replacing it with mulch, wood chips and lots of drought tolerant plants. It looked professionally done, so of course we were in shock when he said that he did it all himself! He showed us how the mulch ground cover helps to retain moisture in the soil, so he rarely waters but the ground still felt damp and cool.

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Whether you have 1 rain barrel or 5, you will be making the most out of the few rainy days San Diego sees each year.

Then we headed to the side of his house, where he showed off his massive rain barrel array. I have to say, it was a little intimidating to see such a feat of engineering, but he assured us that it’s really easy after you do a little math. To help with this, we’ve put together a DIY guide to plan for and install rain barrels at your home!

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Low flow shower heads and faucet aerators can make a huge impact!

After checking out Eric’s amazing vegetable garden, which he irrigates with water collected from his rain barrels, we headed inside the house! One clever tactic that we’d never even thought of is to fill up a large bottle with water and put it inside your toilets water tank to help displace water. Then, the toilet tank thinks that it is full and shuts off before using too much water. 

Another quick and easy bathroom water savings retrofit…low flow shower heads and faucet aerators. They are simple to install and the water savings can really add up. And best of all? I Love A Clean San Diego has lots of them available through a partnership with San Diego Gas & Electric. If you are an SDG&E customer, you can swing by our office to pick up your free water savings kit! Or, you can request one online and they’ll mail it to your home!

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Displacing the water in your toilet tank allows it to use far less water with each flush.

We finished the day by taking a tour of his garage. You might not think that a garage has anything to do with water conservation, but it does if that’s where you do your laundry. Eric’s family has installed a gray water system in the garage to collect water from the washing machine to irrigate shrubs on the side of his house. This installation is a bit more technical, since you have to create a two-way valve and find a way to run PVC pipe through your garage and out to the yard. But, the good news is that in San Diego, you no longer need a permit to install gray water systems, as long as it is only hooked up to your washing machine. For more water savings tips for every room of your home click here and if you’re interested in learning more about rebates, we have an infographic for that too!

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Gray water, commonly referred to as Landry to Landscape is another great option to make the most out of every drop.

Now that you’ve gone behind the scenes, here is the final product – our water conservation video!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5_OV2TVvok]

 

Get to know our Program Assistants!

Today’s blog comes from I Love A Clean San Diego’s Development and Marketing Coordinator, Sarah who was inspired by all the hard work that our Program Assistants put into our programs. In addition to our office staff who coordinate events, and educate students about the environment, we have a wonderful team of Program Assistants, also known as PAs.  Read on to learn more about what it means to be a Program Assistant!

(Left to right) Angelica (PA), Halle (intern), Pia (PA), Nicole (PA) and former PA and current Community Programs Coordinator, Moriah all showing off our brand new temporary, I Love A Clean San Diego tattoos at Coastal Cleanup Day!

It’s no secret that we’ve been busy this Fall with everything from Coastal Cleanup Day, to Beautify Chula Vista Day, and most recently, our Fall Social Fundraiser. If you have ever wondered how we do what we do all year round, we’re here to let you in on a secret – Program Assistants. Program Assistants are not volunteers, but rather they are hired members of our staff. While they don’t normally work in the office, they are there to support us when we need them most, at cleanups, fundraising events, and educating students all over San Diego County. If you’ve ever been to one of our events, there is a good chance that they handed out the supplies that you needed, weighed the trash you collected, or came to your student’s classroom. Read below to learn more about each of our amazing Program Assistants!

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Grace joined the team just a couple months ago to support our environmental education department. When she’s not engaging a classroom full of students in a discussion about waste reduction and pollution prevention, you’ll find her running, stand up paddle boarding, and SCUBA diving. Check back in November to read her very first blog!

 

 

 

DSC00301Lauren is a recent Boston transplant who became interested in ILACSD after seeing our logo on a Clean Beach Coalition poster in Mission Beach. Lauren has a degree in environmental studies, and she’s most looking forward to connecting with San Diegans about recycling—at her last job, she successfully initiated a recycling incentive program for her coworkers.

 

DSC00315Vince also joined I Love A Clean San Diego earlier this year and has helped out at a number of our cleanups and adopt-a-beach presentations. In his spare time he’s working to start an organization with a mission to turn beach volleyball players into environmental stewards.

 

 

 

 

Angelica Truong 131 x 172Angelica is in SDSU’s Masters of Public Administration program and works part-time for the County of San Diego conducting research for the Climate Action Plan, LEED Neighborhood Development and other sustainability projects. Angelica is passionate about sustainable development and has a background in urban and regional planning. She’ll also be assisting with our recycling hotline!

 

SONY DSCIn addition to her work at the Water Conservation Garden, Pia has been a great extension of our staff as a program assistant. She runs a fabulous blog where she has highlighted her work with ILACSD and other environmental organizations.  She was also invited to speak on San Diego’s CW6!

NicoleNicole is one of our longest serving program assistants who helps out in the classroom, as well as at cleanups and fundraisers! We are very thankful to have such a knowledgeable and versatile team member like Nicole to support our programs.

Now that you’ve gotten to know our amazing team of Program Assistants, be sure to say hi to them the next time you’re at one of our events! For a current list of upcoming events, please visit our website!

 

Preliminary CCD Results are in!

The dynamic duo, Lexi & Moriah!

Today’s blog comes from our Community Program Coordinator and co-Coastal Cleanup Day mastermind, Moriah Saldaña!  Over the last few month, Moriah has worked closely with our Community Program Manager, Lexi Ambrogi, to ensure that our second countywide cleanup of the year was a success. Read on to learn more about preliminary totals and view snapshots from around the county!

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Counting all those cigarette butts and bottle caps, although tedious, makes a huge impact worldwide!

The results are still coming in from Coastal Cleanup Day,
but one thing is for sure, Coastal Cleanup Day was an enormous hit! Whether our volunteers were at the beach picking up litter, removing graffiti in their local neighborhoods, or removing invasive plants from canyons, we know that San Diegans are now able to enjoy more than 100 clean outdoor spaces free of litter!

Coastal Cleanup Day in San Diego is part of a statewide and international cleanup effort to restore coastlines across the globe. The effort is coordinated statewide by the California Coastal Commission and internationally by The Ocean Conservancy. While international totals for 2015 are not available yet, in 2014, 560,000 volunteers in 91 countries picked up more than 16 million pounds of trash!

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Volunteers at Sweetwater Marsh working together to do some heavy lifting.

Our staff woke up extra early on Saturday morning to lead more than 200 volunteers in beautification projects at Emerald Hills Park in Encanto.  While the focus of the morning was on various planting and mulching projects, volunteers cleared out over 2,700 pounds of debris!

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Hotline Assistant, Ani spreading mulch with a smile!

As for the county as a whole, preliminary totals for Coastal Cleanup Day – San Diego indicate that we had over 7,500 volunteers cleaning up 105 local creeks, canyons, beaches and bays as part of this event!  While the trash totals are still being compiled, we are expecting that more than 150,000 pounds of trash were removed from our county. On top of this, volunteers also beautified and restored the local environment through removing graffiti, removing invasive plants, building raised garden beds, and performing a variety of park maintenance projects.

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Volunteers at Sun Harbor Marina didn’t stop at the sand.

Every year at this event, and at our other countywide cleanup, Creek to Bay in April, we see that cigarette butts and small plastic items are our most commonly found items.  While unfortunately this isn’t that surprising, we are often stunned by some of the more unique pieces of litter that our volunteers find.  Some of my favorites this year include a set of dentures in good shape, a full fish tank, a dragon statue and a MacBook computer.

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Dentures found at Beacon’s Beach definitely made the top of the odds items list!

See more pictures from Coastal Cleanup Day and our other cleanups on Facebook and Instagram!

Looking to join us at our next event? We have a quite a few volunteer opportunities coming up. Click here for more information on how to get involved!

Fall Cleanups prepare SD for El Niño

Moriah_team15Today’s blog comes from our Community Program Coordinator, Moriah Saldaña. If you’ve been wanting to join us for one of cleanups but haven’t had the opportunity, October is your month. Read on to learn more about what makes our fall cleanup line up so important and how you can be a part of it!

After four years of severe drought, the coming of El Niño is welcome news! Scientists are predicting even greater storms during this rainy season than in 1997.  It is important to ensure that we are prepared, whether that means clearing your rain gutters, taking advantage of the City of San Diego’s rain barrel rebate program, or clearing our natural spaces of litter and debris.  Yes, that’s right, it is crucial to remove as much trash as possible now to prevent flooding caused by waterways blocked with trash and overgrown vegetation. On top of the possibility of flooding, whatever trash remains in local creeks and canyons will flow directly to the Pacific Ocean, causing coastal pollution and beach closures.

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San Diego has 11 watersheds made up of canyons and waterways which empty into the Pacific Ocean. (Tijuana River Valley pictured)

Interested in helping? We have two upcoming cleanup opportunities that need your support, just in time for the rainy season!

TRAM calendar buttonCome out to the Tijuana River Valley on Saturday, October 3rd from 9am-noon to help I Love A Clean San Diego pull trash, tires, and other debris from the Dairy Mart Road Bridge area before it makes it way out to the Pacific.  This event is a part of Tijuana River Action Month, which is a series of events held during September and October to bring people together in an effort to improve the Tijuana River Valley.  With around 40 volunteers at our June Tijuana River Valley Cleanup, we cleaned up over 4,000 pounds of trash.  Think of how much more we could pick up with double the volunteers! To register, click here.

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The bucket says it all. Come out, roll up your sleeves, and get your hands dirty for a clean & beautiful San Diego!

Clearing trash out of the Tijuana River Valley is especially important before this rainy season, since our beaches in the South Bay are consistently some of the most polluted beaches.  Even today, the Beach Advisory is warning people not to go to any beach south of Coronado because of possible pollution.

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Volunteer at the Tijuana River Valley Cleanup to claim your very own ILACSD water bottle!

And a thank you, everyone who volunteers this Saturday at the Tijuana River Cleanup will receive a complimentary reusable water bottle! Click here to register today.

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Beautify Chula Vista Day is great for the whole family!

BCVD calendar buttonThe following weekend on October 10th, we are partnering with the City of Chula Vista for the 13th Annual Beautify Chula Vista Day! This year for Beautify Chula Vista Day we will have two sites, one at Discovery Park and another at the Otay Recreation Center.  Volunteers will pick up trash, remove graffiti and do other beautification projects to make Chula Vista shine. 

This event has made an extensive impact on the City of Chula Vista as a whole.   Since the first Beautify Chula Vista Day,
thousands of dedicated residents have painted out 7,750 square feet of graffiti, stenciled 200 storm drains to warn against dumping, planted 117 trees, and removed nearly 40,000 pounds of debris littering neighborhoods in Chula Vista, showing that huge results can come from volunteers that donate just one morning a year toward helping their community.

More information about the event and registration can be found at: www.BeautifyChulaVista.org.

To stay up to date on upcoming cleanups and events, be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! A current list of events is also available at cleansd.org/v_cleanups.php.