Join ILACSD, the Fallbrook Community Center, and the County of San Diego for a litter cleanup on Saturday, September 29 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Volunteers will meet at the Fallbrook Community Center located at 341 Heald Lane, Fallbrook, CA 92028. We will be picking up trash around the park and the surrounding neighborhood to divert litter from entering the San Luis Rey watershed!
At the cleanup, we will be showcasing educational exhibits that discuss the impact of trash on our environment! We will also be bringing cleanup supplies. We encourage volunteers to bring their own reusable items such as water bottles, work gloves, and buckets to promote zero waste practices and help us in our mission to have a zero waste, litter free and environmentally engaged San Diego region! We also provide community service hours and Letters of Appreciation for volunteers.
All volunteers are required to fill out a waiver form to participate and anyone under the age of 18 needs a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.
Join ILACSD and the County of San Diego for a litter cleanup in San Luis Rey on August 18 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM! Volunteers will meet at the corner of Old River Road and Little Gopher Canyon Road, Bonsall, CA 92084. We will collect trash along the San Luis Rey Riverbed to divert waste from the watershed and beautify the community for summer hikers! This is a great opportunity for students and families to learn ways to protect our local environment!
We will have cleanup supplies, snacks, and water. We also provide community service hours and Letters of Appreciation for volunteers. We encourage volunteers to bring their own reusable items such as water bottles, work gloves, and buckets to promote zero waste practices and help us in our mission to have a zero waste, litter-free and environmentally engaged San Diego region!
All volunteers are required to fill out a waiver form to participate and anyone under the age of 18 needs a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.
Join ILACSD and the County of San Diego for a litter cleanup in De Luz on Saturday, August 11 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Volunteers will meet at the Santa Margarita River Hiking Trail located at 37385 De Luz Road, Fallbrook, CA 92028. Help us collect trash from the watershed and beautify the community for summer hikers! This is a great opportunity for students and families to learn ways to protect our local environment.
We will have cleanup supplies, snacks, and water. We encourage volunteers to bring their own reusable items such as water bottles, work gloves, and buckets to promote zero waste practices and help us in our mission to have a zero waste, litter free and environmentally engaged San Diego region! We also provide community service hours and Letters of Appreciation for volunteers.
All volunteers are required to fill out a waiver form to participate and anyone under the age of 18 needs a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.
Registration is full for this event. Please check out our events calendar to find another upcoming workshop!
Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Vista to bring you a Zero Waste 101 Workshop focused on organics! On Saturday, August 25, 2018, we will be hosting the Save Your Scraps Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the Alta Vista Botanical Gardens located at 1270 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista, CA 92084. The workshop is complimentary and open to the public!
Come by and learn how to keep organics out of the landfill by shopping smart, storing food properly, and composting your scraps. We will also cover water conservation topics, such as ocean-friendly gardens and laundry-to-landscape systems. Visit educational booths, participate in one of the hands-on activities, and bring in gently used items you were planning to donate and participate in the Swap ‘n’ Shop! Swap ‘n’ Shop participants can exchange or donate those items giving them a second life and keeping them out of the landfill. Activities include a ‘make and take’ food waste project and an eco-friendly kids’ craft.
Registration is full for this event. Please check out our events calendar to find another upcoming workshop!
Interested in making your business a little greener, but not sure where to start? Have a green team, but hitting a roadblock? No matter where you are on your path to going green, I Love A Clean San Diego and Wells Fargo are here to help!
Join us on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm for our Green Business Solutions Workshop, an informative evening focused on how to make your business a more eco-conscious establishment! The workshop will be held at the San Diego Foundations Building in the Hoffman Room located at 2508 Historic Decatur Road, San Diego, CA 92106.
Whether you work in an office, a restaurant, or in retail, we will have valuable information for all business models! At this event, we will identify the importance of zero waste practices, teach you how to implement sustainable practices in your business, and discuss the environmental and economic benefits of going green! Hear from peers about their successes and struggles in implementing zero waste at their workplace. This event is open to the public! You can register online or walk in the day of the event.
Today’s blog post was written by High Tech Middle Media Arts 6th grader, Kaiya. Kaiya’s class studied the impact that humans have on our local water resources and their contribution to food waste on a global scale. The students looked into water and food waste issues locally, statewide, nationwide and globally. The class hopes to educate the local community about waste and pollution issues and inspire change.
Have you ever wondered how expiration dates work? Wondered how important they are? Well, I certainly did. So to those who still do, let me explain.
Let’s start with a short history lesson. Expiration dates were introduced in 1950 at a store called Marks & Spencers. It wasn’t until 1970 when “Sell By” and “Best By” tags were added to most supermarkets. Now that our history lesson has concluded, let’s get to the interesting stuff!
Expiration dates aren’t supposed to show a fruit’s edibility, but the fruit’s “peak quality”; not when it’s expired. It’s because of this common misconception that people discard perfectly good food! So actually, expiration dates are optional. They are suggestions meant to assist. It’s more important to know your food and to simply throw it out because of the expiration date.
Americans discontinued making their food, but still wanted to be informed about how it was made. This caused the creation of expiration dates. The facilities did tests on fruit, seeing how long they usually lasted. The most common result would become its “expiration date.”
We are wasting food.
When shopping for fruits, people are usually attracted to the apple that has the least bruises, causing an unnecessary amount of food waste. The food that’s wasted converts to a brown lump and produces a white puss. That’s mold. Mold should be thrown out, but if it’s just brown, it should be fine. Brown spots on fruit are sugar spots, meaning they amplify the flavor. They are perfectly safe to consume, but if it’s a blob of brown, you should throw it away. These spots are discovered on bananas when they continue to ripen, due to ethylene. Supermarkets tend to throw away brown fruit because it doesn’t sell. Food is wasted for no reason.
Brown fruit is oxidized fruit, meaning that air made them turn brown. Brown fruit is still edible! Apples turn brown in recently bitten parts. The brown on parts on apples reduce taste, but it can still be consumed.
Is there anything I shouldn’t eat when expired? Yes. Infant formula loses its nutrients passed its expiration date. Expired deli meats give you food poisoning, as well as eggs. Dairy gets bacteria buildup when it expires, so it also shouldn’t be consumed.
What moldy food can I eat?
Cheese increases in value when moldy. It tastes more flavorful, which makes a higher profit when sold. However, only specific types of cheese are edible with mold. Cheddar, Colby, Parmesan, and Swiss should be fine to consume. Other soft cheeses like cottage cheese, cream cheese, and ricotta cheese with mold should be discarded.
About the Author
Kaiya is a 6th grader at HTMMA. Her blog was democratically selected by her peers to be featured on I Love A Clean San Diego’s website. Her work will be exhibited alongside other students at a community beach cleanup coordinated by the HTMMA students.
On May 24th, I Love A Clean San Diego celebrated its 20th Kids’ Ocean Day, fostering the next wave of environmentally informed and engaged students. Kids’ Ocean Day is not just an excuse for students to hang out at the beach during the school day. It actually begins weeks before in the schools with ILACSD staff facilitating educational presentations for local elementary school students! These students then join ILACSD and a team of volunteers at the beach for a litter cleanup and the formation of an aerial art piece.
During the assemblies, ILACSD educators teach students about the importance of marine life, how their actions affect the ocean, and how they have the power to protect the health our environment. “It was absolutely fantastic. We had kids eager to go to other beaches to clean them up. I can’t say enough good things about how much the kids loved the assembly,” said one teacher from Los Peñasquitos Elementary. The teacher explained how they loved their students being able to see others come together to make a difference for their community during the beach cleanup. The teacher was thrilled to have their students participate in Kids’ Ocean Day, saying, “Thank you so much for this incredible experience. We can’t thank you enough for this opportunity.”
Over the 20 years that ILACSD has hosted Kids’ Ocean Day, we have engaged 20,816 participants and removed approximately 7,280 lbs. of debris from San Diego’s coastline.
Each year, the five participating California cities determine a statewide-theme for the artwork. The 2018 theme – “Waves of Change” – evokes images of our youngest generations propelling us forward towards a cleaner, safer, and more mindful future. It illustrates how our daily choices, including what we eat, wear, discard, and purchase, have far-reaching effects. This message is broadcast to the world through the art formation. It serves as a call to action for others to join the cause and be mindful of consumption and disposal habits. Check out the video below to see the final aerial art image being formed!
Students collected plastic debris on Mission Beach using re-purposed water jugs!
“Kids’ Ocean Day is my favorite day of the year,” said Emily Nelson, Education Manager at I Love A Clean San Diego. “This entire event, from the assembly to the cleanup and aerial artwork, showcases the power of the individual, no matter their age. I hope each child realizes just how important and powerful they are.”
We would not have been able to make “Waves of Change” without the help of our sponsors, our volunteers, teachers, and students!
Thank you to all of our Kid’s Ocean Day sponsor for investing in a cleaner San Diego!
One of the best ways people choose to spend their holiday weekends is on the beach — especially in sunny San Diego. With Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day coming up, families and friends will flock to the coast to celebrate their long weekends. In response to the influx of locals and tourists, ILACSD and the San Diego Clean Beach Coalition (SDCBC) will place 200 temporary trash and recycling bins along some of the city’s busiest beaches to reduce the amount of beach and marine litter.
A Clean Beach Coalition recycling bins set out for the Fourth of July last summer!
Over the past decade, SDCBC has kept 3.5 million pounds of trash off the beach and out of the ocean. This past year, over 61,000 pounds of debris were collected during the summer holiday weekends. With the support of Think Blue San Diego, PB Shore Club, FreePB, and more, SDCBC aims to educate beachgoers about the benefits of swapping reusable alternatives for single-use products.
How can you make the most out of your holiday weekends while staying sustainable? SDCBC recommends that visitors bring hard plastic coolers, refillable water bottles, and food storage containers to reduce the amount of disposables items brought to the beach. Avoid bringing plastic straws and utensils! And make sure all recyclables are clean, dry, and empty. Spend less time worrying about your waste by visiting our zero waste database, WasteFreeSD.org, for everything you need to know about reusable options!
Summer can stay sustainable by simply packing reusable options when preparing to head to the beach!
In fact, your only worry while basking in the sun at the beach should be when to reapply sunscreen. That is why SDCBC’s goal is to ensure that the safety of the community and the ecosystem is not compromised by the impact of litter. With these easily accessible CBC bins, visitors are able to responsibly throw away and recycle their waste while still enjoying their vacations. Even at the most crowded beaches, people will still be able to enjoy the sun, sand, and the ocean in San Diego!
Not planning to hit the beach for the holidays? No worries! You can still party with a purpose while you celebrate this summer! A picture is all it takes to support ILACSD as the local Keep America Beautiful affiliate. With Absolut Vodka’s new Absolut America campaign, for every photo submitted through the site, $1 will be donated to Keep America Beautiful or another selected charity. After submitting your photo, you can share the decked out picture on social media to show how easy it is to support ILACSD and Keep America Beautiful all summer while you #PartyWithAPurpose with #AbsolutAmerica.
Support Keep America Beautiful and its affiliates by submitting a photo of how you party with a purpose to Absolut America!
With the Clean Beach Coalition and Absolut America, it is simple to #DoBeautifulThings. Just by recognizing the impact that waste has on water ecosystems, San Diegans are better prepared to act wisely when it comes to waste, especially during the summer holidays. For more information about the Clean Beach Coalition, make sure to visit CleanBeachCoalition.org.
Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Carlsbad to bring you a workshop focused on sustainable living! On Saturday, June 23, 2018, we will be hosting the Seaside Sustainability Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the Dove Library located at 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad, CA92011. The event is completely FREE and open to the public.
Come by and learn how to set yourself up for success in sustainability! Visit educational booths, participate in one of the hands-on activities, and bring in gently used items you were planning to donate and participate in the Swap ‘n’ Shop! Swap ‘n’ Shop participants can exchange or donate those items giving them a second life and keeping them out of the landfill. Make sure to stick around for our raffle where you have the opportunity to win sustainable prizes that will help with your eco-friendly journey!
Get registered today to reserve your spot! We hope to see you there!
This May, I Love A Clean San Diego will bring 1,000 elementary school students, teachers, and volunteers to the beach to become a living piece of artwork at South Mission Beach to celebrate the annual Kids’ Ocean Day.Through a partnership with the California Coastal Commission, ILACSD will host San Diego County’s 20th Annual Kids’ Ocean Day! Kids’ Ocean Day kicks off before we even reach the beach with in-school assemblies to educate the students on the importance of our ocean, how it is being harmed due to human actions, and how we each play a role in protecting the health of our oceans. Then, on May 24th, these students will unite in a beach cleanup, followed by the formation of an image only visible from the sky. Check out the video below to get a glimpse of what to expect at Kids’ Ocean Day.
This year, the statewide theme is “Waves of Change,” evoking the powerful force we can be when united in our actions. Forming the aerial art message through the collective efforts of each individual sitting in the sand is a perfect metaphor for how our combined daily habits like refusing single-use plastics have incredible power in shaping the health of our environment. We are grateful to have so many young participants engaging in this cause and hope this event will propel their momentum in acting as wise environmental stewards.
Revealing I Love A Clean San Diego’s 2018 Kids’ Ocean Day “WAVES OF CHANGE” Aerial Art Design:
2018 Kids’ Ocean Day Aerial Art Design
If you would like to be a part of this event, we’re looking for adult volunteers (18 years of age and older) to lead students during the cleanup and the aerial art. If you’re interested, you can find more details on the Kids’ Ocean Day event page or register here! As a thank you, all volunteers will receive a photo of the completed aerial art image as a keepsake! We hope you’ll come together with us this year to be a wave of change for our environment!
