Author: Chris Wieseler1

Get a free oil filter and save our local environment!

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Hotline Assistant, Barbara Lopez!

Many of us know that it is important to recycle used motor oil, but did you know that recycling the oil filter is just as important? One used oil filter contains about 10 ounces of used oil, even after draining, and therefore should not be thrown in the trash. By recycling your oil filter, you prevent used oil from entering our landfills, our water supply, and our environment. Also, recycling an oil filter keeps about one pound of reusable steel from going to the landfill. According to CalRecycle, if each oil filter sold in California was recycled, nearly 67 million pounds of steel would be diverted from landfills; that’s enough steel to build three large sports stadiums!

To encourage residents to recycle their old oil filters, the County of San Diego, Department of Public Works and I Love A Clean San Diego will be holding oil filter exchange events on March 23, 2013. Residents of the unincorporated county can visit one of the participating AutoZone locations, bring in a used filter and receive a new one free. In addition to oil filters, residents can also bring in up to five gallons of uncontaminated used motor oil to recycle.

If you are unable to attend these events, there are other options available to properly recycle used oil filters and motor oil. Some communities offer a free home pick up of used motor oil and filters. Also, there are nearly 300 Certified Used Oil Collection Centers in San Diego County that accept up to five gallons of uncontaminated used motor oil; many of these collection centers will also accept oil filters for recycling. If you have motor oil that is contaminated or more than five gallons of uncontaminated motor oil, visit a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility for proper disposal. To see if free home pick up of used motor oil is available in your community or to find a Certified Collection Center near you, visit WasteFreeSD.org.

Upcoming Oil Filter Exchange Events
All events will be held on Saturday March 23, 2013 from 10am-2pm. Limit one free filter per person. Free offer valid during specified date, time, and location.

Fallbrook
AutoZone at 1081 S. Mission Ave., Fallbrook 92028

Lakeside
AutoZone at 12421 Woodside Ave., Lakeside 92040

Ramona
AutoZone at 370 Pala St., Ramona 92065

Spring Valley
AutoZone at 699 Sweetwater Rd., Spring Valley 91977
AutoZone at 9710 Campo Rd., Spring Valley 91978

To find out about additional recycling events, visit WasteFreeSD.org today!

Celebrating Education, Environment and Dr. Seuss

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Marketing Intern and UCSD student, Christina Etchebarren!

suesscakeUCSD — In 1995, UCSD’s Library was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Theodor and Audrey for their generous contributions and dedication to improving literacy.

It’s that special time of year again, where we San Diegans celebrate the life and works of one of our own, Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel! This past weekend marked what would have been the writers’ 109^th birthday. It’s always a special time walking down library walk at UCSD and seeing everyone gather around a giant inflatable birthday cake situated outside the building that houses his legacy. When freshman first step foot in front of the famous library, the first thing they learn is about is why it was named after Dr. Seuss and how he and his wife Audrey, generously supported UCSD’s efforts to keep students reading.

Dr. Seuss’ birthday has been adopted as National Read Across America Day, which is an initiative curated by the National Education Association to encourage school aged children to incorporate reading for fun in to their everyday life.

We at I love A Clean San Diego share a common passion with Dr. Seuss, and that is our dedication to education and to conserving our environment. Dr. Seuss’ 1971 book “The Lorax” gives us the clearest view of the writer’s position on environmentalism and the human predicament. This children’s book, which was then considered radical commentary on eco-politics, is now renowned for the simple yet powerful message warning society about the dangers of over development and lack of sustainable living. This sort of level-headed environmentalism wasn’t common in the early ‘70’s and environmental activism was viewed as a sort of hippie nonsense. But it was the nonsensical whims of an exceedingly creative mind that brought children and adults alike to change their perception of the costs of human impact.

We citizens of San Diego are lucky to be able to lay claim to such a brilliant and forward thinking mind such as Dr. Seuss. If you look closely at the native trees and shrubs, you’ll notice an uncanny resemblance to the whacky illustrations of the plant life present on his colorful pages. His creative and inspiring messages live on in the spirit of today’s society and, no doubt, have an extra special place in the hearts of San Diegans.

ILACSD takes top honors for keeping butts off the beach

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Development & Marketing Coordinator, Jessica Green!

As our volunteers know all too well, cigarette butts are a huge litter problem here in San Diego and the most common item we pick up at cleanup events. Earlier this month, we were excited to receive first place honors for our Cigarette Litter Prevention Program during Keep America Beautiful’s 60th anniversary National Conference in Washington, DC!

KAB13-Conference — ILACSD’s Executive Director, Pauline Martinson (right) and Director of Community Events, Natalie Roberts (left) with KAB’s CEO, Matt McKenna.

The CLPP works to reduce cigarette litter by raising awareness about the issue, placing ash receptacles in places where people commonly gather to smoke, such as entrances to public buildings and busy street corners, and distributing pocket ashtrays to smokers.

Defeating cigarette butt litter is a huge undertaking, and we couldn’t do it without our strong partnerships with local businesses, community organizations and the San Diego Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Working together has allowed us to significantly reduce the flow of cigarette butts into storm drains and eventually to the ocean.

To give you a quick glance at the impact the CLPP has had here in San Diego, here are a few stats from local areas where the program is currently in place:

In La Jolla, CLPP ashcans collect an average of 31 butts per day. Volunteers collected 11,708 butts from 10 ashcans in a 3 month time period and have seen a 34% decrease in littered cigarette butts in that area.

In Point Loma, more than 800 cigarette butts were collected from 6 ashcans in the first month after installation. We’ve seen a 58% decrease in littered cigarette butts in that area.

In La Mesa, one of our most recent expansion areas, we’ve seen an 84% decrease in cigarette butt litter and the ashcans collect an average of 180 cigarette butts per ashcan, per month. That’s a total of 3,800 in 3 months.

In North Park we’ve seen 24% decrease in cigarette butt litter and in Oceanside a 74% decrease in cigarette butt litter in target area.

In addition to being recognized for our CLPP, ILACSD has a long history with Keep America Beautiful dating back to the 1960’s. ILACSD, which back then was the War Against Litter Committee, received many honors from KAB in the 60’s before becoming part of the KAB Affiliate network in the 1970’s. Keep America Beautiful is best known for their “Crying Indian” PSA which first aired on Earth Day in 1971 and featured American Indian actor, Iron Eyes Cody.

In case you weren’t around back then, or just want a reminder of this little gem, here’s the full PSA for your viewing pleasure:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR06-RP3n0Q]

Protecting local waterways at Storm Drain Stenciling Day

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Community Events Intern, Alex!

As a student at PLNU in the Point Loma area of San Diego, I get to experience a lot of the weather San Diego has to offer. Usually that means sunny skies or foggy mornings, but sometimes (like last week), it means sitting at my desk listening to the wind howl outside my door and the rain pelt my dorm window. Since I started interning at I Love A Clean San Diego, I’ve become more aware of the effects storms, like the one from last night, have on local waterways and ecosystems. Plus with Storm Drain Stenciling Day approaching, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the role our storm drains play in the health of our environment and what we can do to keep our communities clean.

Maybe you’ve seen this message stenciled by a storm drain somewhere in San Diego? If you have, it’s because a volunteer has participated in the Storm Drain Stenciling Program ILACSD sponsors along with Think Blue, the City of San Diego Storm Water Department! The simplicity of the Storm Drain Stenciling Program is one of my favorite traits. Volunteers check out stenciling kits and use the paint and stencils to write the message on any surface that is linked to a storm drain inlet. So great and so easy!

You might be asking yourself why a storm drains need to be stenciled, anyway. After all, they just link up to the sewage system, right? While this was my own misconception, the truth is sewage and storm drain systems are different. Our sewage system takes all the wastewater from our toilets, showers, and sinks to a treatment facility where the water goes through a three-step process of filtration and treatment before getting released into a natural water source. Storm drains, on the other hand, get no such treatment. Since a storm drain’s job is to literally drain storm water that accumulates on streets when it rains, filtration takes a back seat to avoid street flooding. So when it rains, any and all chemicals, oil, disposable cups, food wrappers, gum, or other trash we leave on the curb get washed down the storm drain system and eventually into our ocean. This is not only bad for wildlife that lives in and depends on the ocean, it poses a threat to human health as well.

When we think of cleanups, it’s really easy to picture beaches and to forget about inland areas. However, a lot of the pollution we see on our beaches has been washed downstream from an inland waterway or canyon. This year’s Storm Drain Stenciling Day around Caramel Creek Neighborhood Park aims to paint and stencil 118 drains that will help inform and remind the community about where their trash is headed. By preventing dumping in inland areas, we can diminish the amount of pollution that reaches our beaches and the ocean.

Meet our new Marketing Intern, Christina!

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s newest Marketing Intern, Christina Etchebarren!

Hey there readers of this blog and fans of I Love A Clean San Diego! My name is Christina, I’m the new Marketing Intern here at ILACSD and I’m so excited to be joining the team and learning from the wonderful staff and volunteers. I am a fourth year Environmental Systems major at UC San Diego, originally from a small town outside of Portland, Oregon. Growing up I’ve always been surrounded by environmentally conscientious communities, so it was no surprise that learning about and protecting our environment has turned in to a passion of mine. Letting people know about what we’re up to at ILACSD is a part of my job description and my first assignment was to attend one of our education presentations at University City High School on Tuesday, Feb. 12^th.

Arriving at the high school brought back a strange wave of nostalgia for my carefree, hormone charged, rebellious teenage days and I kind of felt like never leaving. I sat myself in the back row of a marine science classroom trying to blend in inconspicuously as the students noisily settled into their seats. Monica Rosquillas, who is one of our lovely educators, introduced herself and took control of the students attention with a quickness and ease that would impress the pants off of any HS teacher I’m sure; high schoolers can be some of the most difficult crowds to reign in and she did so with confidence that can only come from plenty of experience.

The presentation began with a lesson on the importance of water, which may seem obvious but sometimes all of us need a reminder about just how vital clean water is to not only our health, but the health of every living thing around us. The rest of the lesson plan was focused on watersheds, water quality and marine ecosystem health. Talking about environmental issues can be an extremely difficult task because you don’t want to come across as threatening or pessimistic and you don’t want present the problem as overwhelmingly large or beyond help, but you do want to make it seem important and urgent enough to motivate people to care and to take action. The presentation that I Love A Clean San Diego has put together walks the line quite gracefully, and I noticed that even from the back of the classroom, all of the students seemed to stay engaged throughout the entire duration of the talk.

albatrossjar — Stomach contents from an Albatross include plastic caps, fishing line, and even a small wooden door knob.

Monica hit the message home by passing around a jar filled with contents from an Albatross’ stomach which included a pen and several other pieces of colorful plastic, I heard murmurs of horror coming from the pupils as they passed the jar around with disgust. To be honest, although I’ve gone through several years of environmental education throughout my time at UCSD, I learned a lot about watersheds and how important it is that we do our best to keep them clean.

All in all, I walked out of University City High School proud to be a part of such an amazing and inspiring organization and feeling hopeful for our future generations of environmental enthusiasts, and I look forward to the months ahead here at ILACSD.

You’ll hear from me soon, until next time.

Christina

clean water environment environmental education I Love A Clean San Diego intern san diego environment water pollution prevention watershed education

Did volunteers find love at Cupid’s Cleanup?

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Community Events Coordinator, Lexi Ambrogi!

This past weekend, ILACSD hosted an event—my personal favorite—called Cupid’s Cleanup. The grand totals are pretty impressive: 231 volunteers joined us on the lawn outside of the PB Taylor Library to do a street-sweep cleanup of Pacific Beach’s streets and alleyways—an often neglected part of this coastal community—and removed nearly 500 lbs of debris (359 lbs trash, 128 lbs recyclables) in under 2 hours.

Volunteers were briefed on the importance of removing trash from our communities before it reaches the ocean and becomes a serious threat to the health of our marine ecosystems. They learned how trash can travel for miles through our storm drain system and be mistaken for food by sea creatures; armed with this knowledge, they took to the streets to fill up their trash bags.

As this is our take on a “singles mingle” event, we decided to have a little fun with our volunteers: everyone wrote his or her name on a nametag either in green (single and ready to mingle!) or red (already spoken for). We can’t say for sure if sparks were flying between our volunteers, but it wouldn’t be the first time—two volunteers met at this cleanup in 2007 and eventually got married!

Our staff was taken aback by the overwhelming support and gratitude we received from people in the neighborhood. We had several walk-up volunteers who saw us on the lawn and decided to join us, and lots of people were asking how they could get involved with our future events (my answer: email me!)

After the cleanup, many volunteers walked over to Typhoon Saloon to join us for an after-party, where volunteers could win prizes for guessing our trash totals for the day. You can see photos from the event in our Facebook album.

Looks like fun, right? We’re jam-packing our 2013 schedule with cleanup events, so check back often to see where we’ll be next!

cleanups environment san diego environment volunteer water pollution prevention

Think Blue Brigade tackles storm water pollution in Market Creek

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Environmental Educator, Monica Rosquillas!

Last week, I gladly spent my Saturday with the high school students from the Elementary Institute of Science (EIS) stenciling storm drains in the neighborhood of Market Creek. The students at EIS are part of the Think Blue Brigade, a program by Think Blue San Diego that aims to connect high school students with storm water pollution prevention.

I arrived at EIS, stenciling kits in hand, and was met by a warm group of students and their enthusiastic advisor. Soon after, we walked out into the sunny streets of Market and Euclid, where we split up into 3 groups, each group stenciling “Don’t Dump Goes to Ocean” on 3 storm drains. While some tackled storm drains, others documented their progress, recording video and taking pictures for their end-of-the-year project.

The footage collected will be used in a video that will be showcased at the end of the year. The storm drain stenciling activity and video project fulfill 2 out of the 3 requirements of being part of the Think Blue Brigade. Having already completed the storm drain stenciling, this group of students will also participate in ILACSD’s signature cleanup event, the Creek to Bay Cleanup, held on April 27^th of this year. Then, they will have until June to finish their video on storm water pollution and Green Transportation.

It’s very encouraging to work with a group of high school students, like these kids, who willingly give up their Saturday mornings to come out and do an event like this. As an educator at I Love A Clean San Diego, I go to high schools all over San Diego and teach kids about pollution. So when I see them do something about it, it feels great! Overall I had a great day spreading the message of storm water pollution prevention with this awesome group of students.

If you are a high school student interested in becoming involved with the Think Blue Brigade, please contact the education department by calling (619) 291-0103 or email me at mrosquillas@cleansd.org.

clean water environmental education water pollution prevention

Celebrate Valentine’s Day a few days early at Cupid’s Cleanup

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Community Events Coordinator, Lexi Ambrogi!

It’s that time of year again—time to stress out about making the perfect Valentine’s Day plans. Restaurant reservations, flower deliveries, boxes of heart-shaped chocolates…so much work! We’ll make it easy for you this year: show that you care by joining us for Cupid’s Cleanup on Saturday, February 9!

Volunteers will meet on the lawn outside of the Pacific Beach Taylor Library and clean up the streets of Pacific Beach from 10AM-12PM. If you’ve ever seen the side streets and alleyways around Pacific Beach, you’d agree that they are in need of some volunteer love.

cupids1 — Volunteers combing the beach at last year’s Cupid’s Cleanup

Though a lot of our cleanups are along the beach, it’s important to pay attention to the trash on our streets before it turns into the trash in our ocean. This street-sweep cleanup will be a preventative measure: we’ll be the last line of defense before this trash travels out to sea where it can harm marine life.

As you may guess from the title of the event, we like to put a “singles mingle” spin on this event, because you never know who you will meet at one of our cleanups!

Don’t believe me? Just ask Julie and Kenny Potter. A few years ago, these two volunteers—strangers then—both volunteered with us for this event. Cupid, as he has been known to do, struck them with his arrow and they fell in love! They’re now happily married.

But don’t worry, married folks—this event is for everyone! We’re excited to spend our Saturday morning cleaning up the streets of Pacific Beach with families, couples, singles, and kids alike.

As always, community service forms will be available on site to all volunteers. And don’t forget about the post-event party at Typhoon Saloon: volunteers are invited to join us for some celebratory snacks, drinks and fun from 12PM-1PM at Typhoon Saloon, just around the corner.

If you’d like to sign up for this event, contact Lexi Ambrogi at lambrogi@cleansd.org or (619)-704-2778. Hope to see you all there!

New Year, New Laws: California’s Light Bulb Standards

Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Hotline Assistant, Barbara Lopez!

As the calendar turned to 2013, light bulb manufacturers are now required to meet new efficiency standards; light bulbs of traditional wattage of 60 and 40 watts will be replaced with bulbs that have maximum wattage of 43 and 29 watts, respectively. This is the latest phase of the light bulb standard; 100 watt bulbs were phased out starting in 2011 and 75 watt bulbs were phased out in 2012. New bulbs will provide the same amount of light while using less energy and costing less money to operate. Light bulbs already in use in your home are not affected and the standard does not affect all types of light bulbs; specialty bulbs, such as appliance bulbs, 3-way bulbs, and others, are exempt.

So what light bulb options are available? One option is the energy-saving halogen light bulb. These bulbs are a type of incandescent that use gases to improve energy efficiency and are widely available. Another option is the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb. CFLs are also widely available and are more energy efficient than traditional incandescent and halogen light bulbs. In fact, according to the California Energy Commission, a 23- to 27-watt CFL provides the same amount of light as a traditional incandescent but consumes 75% less energy. LED bulbs have been slowly gaining popularity in recent years and are said to be more energy efficient than both halogens and CFL bulbs. Although LED bulbs tend to be more expensive, their longer lives and energy savings usually offset the higher cost.

Many online resources as well as the Light Bulb Finder app can help you make the switch to more energy efficient light bulbs.

Since incandescent and LED light bulbs do not contain mercury there is nothing that prohibits you from disposing of them in your regular trash. However, for those of you who enjoy arts and crafts, a quick internet search yields ideas for reusing those light bulbs. CFLs should not be disposed of in the trash and should instead be recycled because of the small amount of mercury found inside of each bulb. Home improvement stores, such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, will accept CFLs from residents to dispose of properly. You can also dispose of CFL bulbs at your local household hazardous waste collection facility.

To find a center near you, visit our new and improved one-stop recycling resource, WasteFreeSD.org.

Meet Alex, our new Community Events Intern!

We are excited to welcome our newest intern Alex to the ILACSD team!

Hey San Diego! I’m Alex and I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining I Love A Clean San Diego as their Community Events Intern! A little bit about me: I’m a senior at Point Loma Nazarene University majoring in International Studies. I was lucky enough to spend a semester in San Jose, Costa Rica my junior year. While there, I had the opportunity to watch (and help!) baby sea turtles hatch and waddle their way into the night waves one weekend. It’s an experience I’ll always remember, in part because the opportunity was given to me by the small community of Ostional, which comes together in very practical ways to protect the environment.

When it came time to choose an internship, I knew I wanted to intern somewhere that educated people about the importance of the environment and its stewardship. But more than that, I wanted an organization that provided useful, applicable ways for individuals to do their part. I had high hopes for ILACSD and they were all met at the first Tsunami Sweepers clean up at Torrey Pines on Saturday.

The day was overcast and foggy when I pulled into the parking lot. I’d never been to a cleanup before, so I had no idea what to expect. I soon found out we were hoping for at least 25 volunteers and was so excited to know that we not only reached that minimum, but completely surpassed it! The volunteers each split off into groups of three or four and made their way through the shores picking up normal trash and looking for anything that could be washing ashore from Japan. As they returned, I weighed the trash and recyclables as Laura, another ILACSD intern I had the pleasure of meeting, recorded the weights. Overall, we weighed in 65lbs of trash and 30lbs of recycling that were picked up in a just a few hours!

Some people might think handling trash bags is icky. I’m usually in that boat. But the fact that this large group of folks came out on a cold, foggy Saturday morning to clean up a beach was inspiration enough for me to not even think twice about it until I got home. Parents volunteering with their kids, service members bringing their families, and witnessing the willingness to help on everyone’s faces just go to show me that even though I’m one person, my small act, when teamed with the small acts of others, can really make a difference in my community.

I look forward to the Tsunami Sweeper cleanups ILACSD has planned in the future, as well as next weekend’s Cupid’s Cleanup in Pacific Beach. As someone who before Saturday had never gone out to an unfamiliar location to work with unfamiliar faces, I can honestly say it’s worth it and I’m hooked!