Page 33 – I Love A Clean San Diego

Keeping SD Waste Free

More than 175,000 pounds of trash were collected at this year’s 91 Creek to Bay cleanup sites located throughout San Diego County. The objects most commonly found at cleanups include furniture, shopping carts, and broken glass. However, some items found at cleanup sites can pose an even more serious threat to our local environment. Tires, electronics, paint and motor oil were hazardous items most often found at Creek to Bay this year. These are also the items that visitors to our recycling database, WasteFreeSD.org, and callers to our recycling hotline most commonly request disposal information for. These items cannot be disposed of in your regular trash, so unfortunately it’s not surprising that they are also commonly found dumped in our canyons, streets, and waterways.

When a tire is illegally dumped in a canyon or even on the side of the road, it can release chemicals as it breaks down that present a fire risk. With our dry Southern California climate this can be extremely dangerous. Also a tire that is abandoned can hold water, which can create a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease carrying pests. To avoid these issues, take your tires to the proper place for recycling. Tires can most often be taken to a tire retail store, with a nominal fee. Your local jurisdictions will sometimes hold free collection events where you can drop off your waste tires for recycling with no charge, check with your jurisdiction or visit WasteFreeSD.org to see if there’s an event near you.

Electronic waste (or e-waste) contains heavy metals; these heavy metals are exposed to us as electronics that are illegally dumped begin to break down. Exposure to heavy metals can have detrimental effects to our health; reduced growth and development, cancer, organ damage and nervous system damage can occur due to exposure to heavy metals. E-waste can easily be disposed of for free at an e-waste collection event or at a household hazardous waste collection facility. There are also recycling centers located in San Diego that accept e-waste during their regular business hours, but fees may apply so be sure to call ahead to make sure you’re well informed.

Harsh chemicals are the solvents used in oil based paint; the main solvent used in latex based paint is water. Latex based paint is less harmful to the environment and your health than oil-based paint, and should be used as a substitute whenever possible. However if either type of paint is poured down a storm drain or sewer system, they have the potential to pollute our groundwater, rivers, and streams. Latex based paint can now be disposed of at many local paint stores that are now participating in a state wide program called Paint Care. There a few conditions the paint must meet in order to be disposed of through the Paint Care program, check out WasteFreeSD.org for more information. Oil based paint, as well as latex based paint, can be disposed of for free at a household hazardous waste collection facility. The site you can utilize is based on where you live, so be sure to locate your assigned site on WasteFreeSD.org.

Just one gallon of motor oil can pollute one million gallons of water or an acre of soil an inch deep. Motor oil is toxic to animals and humans if ingested, and it can coat the body of aquatic animals and birds. Motor oil can be conveniently be disposed of at many different auto part stores, without a charge and upon request you can even receive money back! Certified Used Oil Collection Centers will take used motor oil from the public and will pay you 40¢ a gallon, find one by visiting WasteFreeSD.org. (However if your motor oil is contaminated with any other substances, such as water, it would need to go to a household hazardous waste collection facility).

Log on to www.WasteFreeSD.org or call our bilingual recycling hotline at 1-800-237-BLUE to find a recycling center or disposal site near you. We thank you in advance for doing your part to preserve our local environment!

Meet Niki, taking photography to new heights!

Living in San Diego, we are fortunate to have so many local organizations making a difference in our community. We are happy to collaborate with Outside the Lens for this year’s Kids’ Ocean Day. Niki Even, Program Director at Outside the Lens, will be taking photography to new heights by becoming this year’s aerial art photographer. On June 6th, close to 1,000 San Diego youth will descend on Crown Point Shores in Mission Bay to send a clear environmental message to the community. These students will perform a beach cleanup, and then form a giant aerial art image of a child listening to a seashell and spelling out the word “LISTEN”, reminding San Diegans about the importance of listening to and living in harmony with the marine environment.

Niki Even has worked for Outside the Lens for the last 6 years, first as the lead media educator and now as the program director. Her favorite part of each day is the ability to share the power of digital media to youth throughout San Diego County. She is thrilled to continue the partnership with I Love A Clean San Diego during Kids’ Ocean Day, combining her love for photography and her passion for education regarding important community topics.

Outside the Lens empowers youth to use digital media to create change within themselves, their community and their world. Their year-long outreach programs include a curriculum component called Water in Focus. Here, students participate in a global photography project that calls them to action as they document the use, waste, conservation, and pollution of water through words and images. I Love a Clean San Diego has participated in visiting Outside the Lens’ classrooms as guest speakers and partnered on community water events with Outside the Lens students.

Niki says, “[i]t’s always exciting to watch our students make a positive change in their personal habits or help create community change based on the images they took and the opportunity to see their world through a new lens, the lens of the camera.”

We are so excited to work with OTL once more and look forward to seeing the captured image.

Kids' Ocean Day Outside the Lens photography

Boxes Set to Hit the Beach for Memorial Day!

With Memorial Day Weekend approaching, many of us are making plans to spend time with family and friends at our beautiful San Diego beaches. But at the end of the day, barbeques, picnics and parties tend to create one thing: lots of trash.

For years, the influx of beachgoers had been synonymous with an increase in litter, as the existing trash cans at beaches tend to fill up very quickly. But I Love A Clean San Diego is leading the charge in reversing this trend with an innovative program called the Clean Beach Coalition.

The Clean Beach Coalition is a joint effort between non-profits, community groups and local government agencies to prevent litter and pollution from our San Diego beaches. We work closely with the City of San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department, Free PB, and several local businesses to bring this summertime program to our beaches. You may recognize this cardboard bin [see attached photo of bin]—we place 200 of them at the most popular city beaches over the summer holiday weekends to ensure that beachgoers will have access to trash and recycling receptacles.

How effective is this program? Last year, these bins collected more than 84,000 pounds of trash and recyclables that may have otherwise ended up as litter on our shoreline. And over the last 3 years, we’ve seen a significant decrease in the amount of trash collected from Mission Beach at our yearly July 5^th cleanup, the Morning After Mess. At the 2012 event, our volunteers found nearly a 50% decrease in litter from just 2 years earlier!

In fact, we’re so excited about the impact of the Clean Beach Coalition that we’re going to kick off this program one holiday earlier in 2013. In addition to placing 100 bins at beaches on July 4 and 50 over Labor Day weekend, we’ll have another 50 trash and recycling bins out at your favorite beach hangouts over Memorial Day Weekend! Look for them at Mission Bay, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Mission Beach.

We’d love to see this program in action, so we’re giving away 10 Rubio’s gift cards to the first 10 people to send us photos of our Clean Beach Coalition bins on the beaches! Snap a photo of the bin in use and email it to iloveacleansd@gmail.com.

Want to get involved? We’re looking for a handful of dedicated volunteers to help us assemble these temporary bins on Thursday, May 23. Contact Lexi at lambrogi@cleansd.org or (619)-704-2778 to sign up.

Help us spread the word about preventing litter at the beach this summer. Need a catchphrase? Try this one: enjoy the scene, but keep it clean!

Meet Nicole, new ILACSD educator

Today’s blog post comes from Nicole McAleer, our newest environmental educator.

I recently joined the I Love A Clean San Diego team as an Environmental Educator. I am really enthusiastic about environmental education and, through ILACSD, I am able to bring my passion and energy to schools all over San Diego County. I have a lovely mobile classroom equipped with high tech gear and cool props to help me present information about watersheds and storm drain pollution to school group of all ages. The students really enjoy taking part in hands-on learning activities like “Sum of Parts”, where they see how a piece of trash can travel through a watershed to the ocean. It gets the kids all riled up to see how misplaced trash can alter their beach experience. I also encourage each student to get involved in preserving the environment through incorporation of the “3 R’s” in their daily lives and participation in I Love A Clean San Diego’s cleanup events. Students have the opportunity to sign up to become more involved in cleanup events on the spot. The students are always directed to the cleanup site closest to their school. More than once students were unaware that there was a waterway or canyon so close that needed their help! I’m always impressed that kids want to get involved and are willing to make simple changes in their daily lives to protect and preserve the environment. Having such strong and dedicated a volunteer base is what has enable ILACSD to remove about 500,000 of trash from San Diego beaches and inland waterways annually.

Prior to working at I Love A Clean San Diego, I earned my Masters of Arts in Teaching and have worked as a Nature and Environmental Educator. I am an avid outdoor enthusiast with a passion for the environment and belief in service to her community.

Here's Nicole acting as a site captain for Coastal Cleanup Day — Here’s Nicole acting as a site captain for Coastal Cleanup Day

In my free time I enjoy spending time being active outdoors. I love hiking, biking, kayaking swimming, running and walking my two dogs (I always remember to scoop the poop). I also love the beach! My love of the outdoors and appreciation of plants and wildlife is part of my inspiration to educate future generations about the importance of protecting the environment. I have learned a lot of new information while working at ILACSD. I was shocked to see that litter in the form of small cigarette butts has such a large impact on water quality in addition to the high quantities they are always found at each clean up event. I stay current on what is going on in the local community through participation in professional development and recently participated in water quality monitoring with Coastkeepers and attended workshops hosted by the Children in Nature Collaborative. I plan to continue learning new techniques that will inspire kids to embrace their natural surroundings.

I am proud to be part of the I Love A Clean San Diego family and hope to see you at a cleanup or presentation soon!

Carroll Canyon Cleanup, a Site Captain’s Perspective on Creek to Bay

Today’s blog post comes from our Marketing Intern, Christina, who fearlessly led a cleanup site as part of the Creek to Bay Cleanup.

This year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup was a huge success thanks to all of our hard working staff, interns and volunteers! We’ve all had time to exchange stories and reflect on our experiences, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my experience with all of you. This was not only my first Creek to Bay, but my first ever event with I Love A Clean San Diego, so I was excited and a bit nervous as I served as a site captain for Carroll Canyon.

Upon arrival, I noticed how steep the descent to the actual canyon was and felt a bit intimidated knowing I was about to lead groups of students and cub scouts down the treacherous hill through mounds of poison oak. Some of the volunteers blew me away with their incredible enthusiasm and dedication. For example, one man who was volunteering with John Deer Water, showed up at 8:30, which was half an hour before the event even began, grabbed a trash bag and headed down the canyon straight away. He told me this was his third cleanup, and a well-seasoned veteran wastes no time waiting for others. Throughout the duration of the event he made 4 complete trips into the abyss and back with two full black bags of trash each time. Everyone was supremely impressed with his dedication and persistence.

Volunteers in canyons are an essential part of the Creek to Bay Cleanup

Trekking alongside the creek that runs through the canyon, we were all very surprised to find such a large amount of debris. There isn’t much surrounding the area so it was odd to find so many beer cans, clothing, plastic bins, and Red Box sleeves. How exactly do you watch DVDs in a canyon anyway? At one point, two Cub Scouts were seen in the distance lugging a giant rusted tent and canopy up the steep hill, we all ran to their aid but they refused help because they wanted to be able to say they hauled it all the way to the top themselves. The boys won our competition to see who could collect the most garbage. They were thrilled to receive free passes to the Birch Aquarium. After all of the Carroll Canyon volunteers battled their way through the terrain for three hours, we all felt a little more connected to each other and a little scared we had all contracted poison oak.

After everyone had parted ways, I couldn’t help but feel so proud of our community for giving up so much time to come hang out with me and help make San Diego a bit cleaner, healthier and more beautiful. I look forward to working I Love A Clean San Diego’s future events, and we all hope to see YOU there as well!

boy scouts carroll canyon clean beaches clean canyons creek to bay I Love A Clean San Diego service volunteer

Creek to Bay Photo Contest – Time to Vote!

On your mark….get set….VOTE!

For the second year in a row, I Love A Clean San Diego has teamed up with Sony Electronics to host a Creek to Bay photo contest. We asked volunteers at this year’s cleanup to best capture the “spirit of service” and send a photo to be entered into our contest. We received a ton of wonderful photos, so it was hard to narrow it down, but we did! We are so lucky to have such hardworking and enthusiastic volunteers! Our top 5 entries have been posted on our Facebook page and it’s up to you to decide who the winner is! All you need to do is ‘Like’ our page and vote for your favorite photo by liking it, it’s as simple as that! Voting is open until Thursday, May 9^th and the winner will be announced Friday, May 10^th. This year’s winner will be receiving a new Sony Cyber-shot camera!

Take a look at our Top 5 photos from this year’s contest (in no particular order):

The Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve sure looks a lot cleaner thanks to the help of this young lady!

Working hard or hardly working? These guys show how fun volunteering can be; you never know what you’ll find!

This Girl Scout Troop had a very successful time cleaning up La Jolla Shores! Check out all of that trash! Impressive job!

This 12 year old Boy Scout is saving marine wildlife one piece of trash at a time! Way to go!

These volunteers show what team work looks like at the Chollas Earthlab site!

beach cleanups creek to bay creek to bay cleanup creek to bay photo contest I Love A Clean San Diego sony

Blast from the Past – the beginnings of classroom education

Did you know that I Love A Clean San Diego is approaching its 60^th Anniversary? While we’ve been around since 1954, it wasn’t until the 1980’s that ILACSD started going into classrooms to do environmental presentations. In 1982, I Love A Clean San Diego’s Education Program put a call out looking for volunteers to help give presentations to schools. 31 years later, the department has grown to be quite a success! In 2012 alone, our Education Department gave 531 presentations to more than 37,000 San Diegans!

Not familiar with what exactly the Education Program here at ILACSD does? Allow me to fill you in! The Education Department is split into three parts: presentations, community events, and programs. Our presence at community events continues to grow each year. ILACSD staff often attend events such as festivals, fairs, and farmer’s markets to educate the general public about the environment. Presentations and programs are usually given in schools to students and younger children.

The primary goal of the Education Department is to positively impact the local community by informing them about the environment and how to reduce their ecological footprint. Our staff focus on providing quality education through specific issues such as: waste reduction, recycling, resource conservation, proper disposal of hazardous waste, as well as storm water pollution. Storm water pollution is a particularly interesting topic to discuss with children and adults. Why? Storm water drains are commonly spotted on our streets and what people don’t realize is that everything that flows into a storm drain (whether it’s water or trash) goes straight into our oceans! Storm drains are not filtered before going into the sea like the sewer system is. The Department also emphasizes how important it is to pick up even the tiniest pieces of trash off the streets. Once trash is pushed into the ocean, marine animals mistake it for food. During a presentation, staff show students a jar filled with different types of common plastics pieces (toothbrush, umbrella handle, bottle cap, comb, lighter) and then learn it’s the stomach contents found in a deceased Albatross (a type of seabird).

One of the many visual aids that ILACSD educators take to presentations, this contains albatross stomach contents

Just look how far Education Department has come since 1954! From looking to volunteers to help with the program to making a difference one presentation at a time! If you would like more information on our programs, presentations, or are interested in having us come to a community event please contact our Education Coordinator, Erika Bjorkquist at ebjorkquist@cleansd.org. Thank you to all of our San Diegan’s for continued support! Here’s to another 60 years!

Counting Down the Top 7 Reasons To Volunteer at Creek to Bay

With our annual Creek to Bay Cleanup coming up tomorrow, it’s no guess as to why our staff and volunteers are bursting with excitement. We’ve been rallying together these past few weeks and it’s all about to pay off tomorrow. With all the anticipation and stress that inevitably brews in the days leading up to such a huge event, I found myself asking, exactly why do the fine people of San Diego decide to take time out of their busy schedule to come help us out? I was surprised to find just how many different reasons our community has for giving back, through on site testimonials and surveys, we’ve narrowed down the most popular reasons for volunteering for Creek to Bay.

Top 7 Reasons San Diegans Participate in Creek to Bay

#7 Opportunity to get to know your neighbors.

San Diego is a big city (second largest in California), this is a great chance to get familiar with your neighbors that share the same interests.

#6 Community service credit for students (high schoolers/college students).

Whether it’s getting into college or grad school, volunteer hours are the perfect thing to put on an application.

#5 Getting exercise in the great outdoors.

Sometimes it’s hard to fit in physical exercise during the busy work/school week, what better way to burn some calories than doing so while also making the community a cleaner and healthier place?

#4 Team building opportunity for sports teams or employees.

Picking up trash in the hot sun while doing your best to avoid poison oak can seem daunting, but with a little help from your friends (or teammates or co-workers), it can turn into a beautiful bonding experience.

#3 Scout patches for boy & girl scouts

Teaching youths the importance of a healthy environment is an invaluable lesson. Creek to Bay offers an outlet for young scouts to get their hands dirty and earn some cool and meaningful merit badges.

#2 Discovering new outdoor areas (parks, canyons, creeks, etc)

There are hundreds of awesome outdoor spaces in the county of San Diego, chances are you haven’t discovered them all just yet. Sign up for a site you’ve never heard of before, and who knows, you could find your new favorite hangout spot!

#1. Preventing pollution from washing downstream

The reason we all spend so much time and effort putting these clean ups together is to get the trash off the streets to prevent harm it does to the environment. One path the trash can take it flowing directing in to storm drains and straight into the ocean. Once plastic and other debris makes its way in to the water, it’s nearly impossible to remove.

What’s YOUR reason for volunteering this Saturday? We want to hear it, if you don’t see your reason listed above, get in touch with us because we love hearing what motivates you. See everyone tomorrow, bright and early!

Prescription Drug Take Back Day this Saturday April 27

Did you know that Americans fill 3.7 billion prescriptions every year? While many of these medications are taken as prescribed, many others go unused and end up taking up space in our medicine cabinets. In order to provide residents with a safe and convenient way to dispose of medications, the Drug Enforcement Agency has scheduled another National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. On Saturday April 27, the DEA will be partnering with local law enforcement agencies to collect unused or expired medications from the public. Residents can drop off their unused medications between 10am and 2pm at one of nearly 40 drop off sites in San Diego County.

By properly disposing of unused medication, you are not just protecting your family but also protecting the local environment. Simply throwing old medication in the trash or flushing it down the toilet can have harmful effects on the environment; it pollutes our waters, impacts aquatic species, and contaminates our food and water supplies. Recent studies by United States Geographical Survey have found active pharmaceutical ingredients present in some groundwater and drinking water sources, some portion of which is likely due to flushing medications. Both the EPA and the FDA encourage the use of a medicine take-back program, like the National Take-Back Day, as it is the safest and most environmentally friendly way to dispose of unused medication. The previous five collection days have collected a total of two-million pounds of unused medication, helping to keep pharmaceuticals out of the environment. To find a drop off location near you, visit the National Take-Back Initiative website.

If you are unable to make it to one of the drop off locations on April 27, visit WasteFreeSD.org to find a location that collects unused medications year round. Secure collection boxes have been installed at several sheriff’s stations throughout San Diego County, giving residents a convenient way to properly dispose of old medication.

For more information about the proper disposal of medication or for other questions about recycling, visit WasteFreeSD.org today!

Javier Hernandez, taking Creek to Bay to new heights

One of the most exciting and gratifying aspects of our annual Creek to Bay Cleanup is seeing people take the initiative to clean up the environment around where they live and then to see their neighbors come together to help. Javier Hernandez is an amazing example of that. He has been working for many years to help clean up his neighborhood of Logan Heights and to show his children and neighbors that they can make a positive difference right in their own community.

Javier (left) with his co-captain at ILACSD's annual site captain meeting — Javier (left) with his co-captain at ILACSD’s annual site captain meeting

Javier is the volunteer Site Captain at the Chollas Creek site near the intersection of 33^rd and National Avenue. Upon first glance, it may just look like an empty dirt lot, but if you walk to the edge of the lot, you will see the trickling waters of Chollas Creek. The surrounding community has dealt with its share of challenges, from prostitution and homeless encampments that made it nearly impossible to even have a cleanup until just a few years ago. Knowing that there was a great need in the area, when one of his former co-workers (and past Creek to Bay volunteer) suggested Javier host a cleanup site, he knew it was the perfect opportunity to dive right in. After the first time, he kept coming back because he says he finds the experience so rewarding and loves to get friends and their kids involved in cleaning up their community.

Volunteers working diligently at Javier's cleanup site at last year's Creek to Bay Cleanup — Volunteers working diligently at Javier’s cleanup site at last year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup

Javier has worked hard to get both the City Council and Caltrans involved in creating momentum to clean up this area in his neighborhood. He felt that organizing a cleanup like Creek to Bay was “something I needed to do just because I live in the neighborhood and I don’t want my kids to see that…I want to show them something positive, show them that they can make a difference too.” This year he also has the full support from City Council District 8 who will be providing dumpsters for a community drop off event in addition to the ones provided by ILACSD so that members of the community can bring their old, discarded items for disposal at no cost, preventing illegal dumping.

Since Javier started his Creek to Bay site, the neighborhood has really taken initiative to help out and they’ve even started to expand to other sites in the area that are in need. Javier says, “It means the world to me to do this. If what I’m doing makes a difference to others that’s the most important thing.”

Join Javier at his cleanup site for this year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup! Register online today at www.CreektoBay.org.