Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Encinitas to bring you the last installment of a three-part series focusing on how to put your passion into action and share the simplicity of sustainability with your community! On Saturday, May 4, 2019, we will be hosting the Adventures in Sustainability Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the EUSD Farm Lab located at 441 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024. The workshop is complimentary and open to the public!
Come by and learn how to fold sustainability practices into everyday hobbies, chores, and even social occasions! Visit educational booths addressing topics such as hosting a party, giving gifts, traveling in confidence, and caring for your pet in a more environmentally conscious way! Join us for this fun, informative workshop and participate in one of the hands-on activities including a ‘make and take’ project and an eco-friendly kids’ craft.
Make and Take Project: Granola ball bites demo and postcard making
Eco-Friendly Kids’ Craft: Decorating gift wrap from zero waste items
Raffle Prizes: Bamboo straws and more to be announced!
In addition, attendees can bring in gently used items you were planning to donate and participate in the Swap ‘n’ Shop! Participants can exchange or donate those items giving them a second life and keeping them out of the landfill. Some example items that have been brought to past workshops include clothes, nail polish, stereos, pet supplies, books, CD’s, picture frames, kitchenware, Halloween costumes, etc.
Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Encinitas to bring you the second of a three-part series focusing on conservation in your kitchen! On Saturday, March 2, 2019, we will be hosting the Save Your Scraps Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the EUSD Farm Lab located at 441 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024. The workshop is complimentary and open to the public!
Come by and learn how to set up your house for zero waste success! Visit educational booths addressing topics such as keep organics out of the landfill by shopping smart, storing food properly, and composting your scraps! Join us for this fun, informative workshop and participate in one of the hands-on activities including a ‘make and take’ project and an eco-friendly kids’ craft.
Make and Take Project: DIY Vermicompost Bins
Eco-Friendly Kids’ Craft: Creating “Eat Me First” Signs for Sustainable Food Storage
Raffle Prizes: Reusable Produce Bags and Beeswax Wraps (a great alternative to plastic wrap)
In addition, attendees can bring in gently used items you were planning to donate and participate in the Swap ‘n’ Shop! Participants can exchange or donate those items giving them a second life and keeping them out of the landfill. Some example items that have been brought to past workshops include clothes, nail polish, stereos, pet supplies, books, CD’s, picture frames, kitchenware, Halloween costumes, etc.
At the end of the workshop, 25 participants will be able to create and take home a fully-functioning vermicomposting bin. Please indicate your interest on the registration page. Participants will be added on a first come, first serve basis. Due to supply restrictions, we are limited to 25 participants. Please limit one per household.
Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Encinitas to bring you the first of a three-part series focusing on how to incorporate zero waste routines into your lifestyle! On Saturday, February 2, 2019, we will be hosting the Green Routines in the Home Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the EUSD Farm Lab located at 441 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024. The workshop is complimentary and open to the public!
Come by and learn how to set up your house for zero waste success! Visit educational booths addressing topics such as zero waste bathroom tips, sustainable laundry methods, zero waste common areas, and DIY cleaning! Join us for this fun, informative workshop and participate in one of the hands-on activities including a ‘make and take’ project and an eco-friendly kids’ craft.
Make and Take Project: DIY Toothpaste
Eco-Friendly Kids’ Craft: Decorate Spray Bottles for DIY Green Cleaning Solutions
Raffle Prizes: All natural sponges, Dr. Bronner’s soaps, and reusable coffee cups from Ecoffee!
In addition, attendees can bring in gently used items you were planning to donate and participate in the Swap ‘n’ Shop! Participants can exchange or donate those items giving them a second life and keeping them out of the landfill. Some example items that have been brought to past workshops include clothes, nail polish, stereos, pet supplies, books, CD’s, picture frames, kitchenware, Halloween costumes, etc.
Join I Love A Clean San Diego and the City of Encinitas on Wednesday, November 7th, 2018 from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm for our Green Business Solutions Workshop, an interactive evening focused on zero waste business practices! The workshop will be held at the Encinitas Library Community Room located at 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024.
We will identify the importance of a zero waste lifestyle, how to implement these practices into your business, and the environmental and economic benefits of going green. Whether you work in an office, a restaurant, or in retail, we will have valuable information for all business models! This is a great opportunity for you to network and share ideas for creating a more eco-conscious work space.
Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Encinitas to bring you another Zero Waste Workshop! On Saturday, February 3, 2018, we will be hosting the Zero Waste 101: Home Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the EUSD Farm Lab located at 441 Quail Gardens Road, Encinitas, CA 92024. The event is completely FREE and open to the public. This is the first of a three-part series on transitioning your home into a zero waste space!
Come by and learn how to set up your house for zero waste success! Visit educational booths addressing topics such as zero waste bathroom tips, sustainable laundry methods, zero waste common areas, and DIY cleaning! Participate in one of the hands-on activities that will be available for all ages, including a kids craft and a make-and-take project! 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 zero waste journey!
Get registered today to reserve your spot! We hope to see you there!
Join us for an informational and interactive session focusing on zero waste business practices. On Wednesday, November 1, 2017, I Love A Clean San Diego will be partnering with the City of Encinitas to host a Green Business Solutions Workshop at the Encinitas Library. We will identify the importance of a zero waste lifestyle, how to implement these practices in your business, and the environmental and economic benefits of going green. Whether you work in an office, a restaurant, or in retail, we will have valuable information for all business models. This will be a great opportunity for you to network and share ideas for creating a more eco-conscious workspace.
Our education team just celebrated the end of our first series of community workshops! by hosting a Zero Waste Summit!
The Zero Waste Summit, a culmination of our Sustainable Living Series, brought together participants from throughout San Diego County to learn the ins and outs of going zero waste. At the Summit, participants explored Ocean Knoll Farm, while exchanging ideas for incorporating zero waste practices into their everyday lives. With help from The City of Encinitas, Jimbo’s, the Solana Center, Healthy Day Partners, and ILACSD, workshop goers went home with zero waste toolkits to jumpstart a more eco-conscious lifestyle. Take a closer look at how the event unfolded!
Participants were given the opportunity to meander through Ocean Knoll Farm, which provides fresh produce for local Encinitas school lunches, and check out the incredible work of Healthy Day Partners.
Thank you to Healthy Day Partners for providing an incredible space for our workshops at Ocean Knoll Farm!
Host a swap & shop at your office or your next get together with friends and family!
Participants discussed tips and tricks for going zero waste with experts from The City of Encinitas, Healthy Day Partners, ILACSD, The Solana Center, and Jimbo’s. Each booth focused on a specific zero waste topic including recipes for natural cleaners, the importance and simplicity of at-home composting, the personal and environmental benefits of purchasing local and organic produce, and were provided reusable containers and bags for restaurant left-overs and grocery shopping.
At the summit, participants visited our partner booths to get zero waste tips, tricks and giveaways!
The speaker panel that included representatives from The City of Encinitas, EDCO, Snooze Eatery, and Kitchens for Good, provided participants with valuable information, advice, and personal experiences to build the foundation for starting a zero waste lifestyle.
Participants enjoyed letting their creativity shine as they repurposed glass bottles into decorative vases and hummingbird feeders.
Repurposing is a great way to keep everyday items out of the landfill. Wine bottles become decor, or an old toy could become a planter.
Workshop goers were given the opportunity to enter a free raffle where they had the chance to win compost bins and a variety of reusable items including reusable produce bags, travel utensils, water bottles, metal straws, coffee thermoses, and more!
All of our participants walked away with at least one new tool to start on their way to zero waste!
A huge thank you goes out to all of our participants and partners who made the Sustainable Living Series such a success!
To participate in an upcoming workshop or cleanup, visit CleanSD.org!
Thanks to the generous support of the City of Encinitas and Healthy Day Partners, I Love A Clean San Diego is currently providing free adult workshops as part of our Sustainable Living Series. After a successful kick-off in November, we’re looking forward to our upcoming workshops in January and February. Read on to learn more!
As a San Diego native, I’ve always taken pride in how our community members rally together during a time of need. Most recently, San Diegans responded impressively to our drought crisis. Between June and August of this year, San Diego county residents decreased their water usage by 27%. We’ve all worked together to take shorter showers and limit our irrigation frequency, but is there more we could be doing?
At our first Sustainable Living Series workshop – What to Know about H2O – I Love A Clean San Diego staff set out to tackle that very question. After reviewing the history of water in San Diego, participants rolled up their sleeves and dug into our repurposed planter activity. Using items salvaged from Goodwill as pots, we planted succulents, saving water and saving items from the landfill in one fell swoop.
Following a tour of the Ocean Knoll Farm, the site of the Sustainable Living Series workshops, our educators discussed the benefits of selecting native plants as part of your outdoor landscape design. We demonstrated water-wise irrigation options, exploring the benefits of backyard rain barrels and detailing the process of installing aLaundry to Landscape greywater system. Our youngest participants got to “bling their bucket” with reminders of how to conserve water in their home.
Thanks to generous donations from Walter Andersen Nursery in Point Loma and Home Depot in Encinitas, we raffled off a rain barrel and 10 native plants, among other items. Everyone walked away with something to set them on the path to living more a more sustainable life.
Join us for our upcoming zero waste workshops: Zero Waste Home on Saturday January 9th and Zero Waste Lifestyle on February 20th, offered at no cost to you!
Today’s blog comes from our Director of Development and Marketing, Morgan, who has been working directly with the City of Encinitas to prepare shoppers for the second phase of the single-use bag ban. Read on to learn more about how I Love A Clean San Diego is working to make the this transition as seamless as possible!
Attention Encinitas Shoppers!
Starting October 10th, the second and final phase of the Encinitas single-use plastic bag ban goes into effect. That means that department stores, clothing stores, hardware stores and even farmer’s markets will no longer be offering single-use plastic bags to shoppers. In order to help ease shoppers into this new policy, I Love A Clean San Diego has partnered with the City of Encinitas to coordinate a series of bag giveaways to coincide with the Phase II implementation.
Come by the following stores and centers and get your free reusable bag to use for your next shopping trip! Remember, there are limited quantities, so act fast!
Sunday, October 4th from 11AM – 1PM:
Encinitas Ranch Town Center – between PetSmart and Barnes and Noble, 1034 N El Camino Real, Encinitas, CA 92024
Encinitas Ranch Town Center – between Buy Buy Baby and Target, 1014 N El Camino Real, Encinitas, CA 92024
Home Depot, 1001 N El Camino Real, Encinitas, CA 92024
Leucadia Farmers Market – Paul Ecke Elementary School, 185 Union Street, Encinitas, CA 92024 (from 10AM – 1PM)
Wednesday, October 7th from 4 – 6PM:
Encinitas Farmers Market – 600 S. Vulcan Ave, Encinitas 92024
Our Admin Assistant, Brittany, sporting our bag monster costume fitted with 550 plastic bags, the estimated amount of plastic bags that each American will use in one year.
Fast Facts about Plastic Bags:
It is estimated that 31.9 million single-use carryout bags are distributed in the City of Encinitas each year.
Studies have shown the prevalence of single-use carryout bags are responsible for littering the environment, blocking storm drains and polluting beaches, oceans and the marine environment.
Single-use bags made from plastic do not decompose, therefore they exist in the environment forever.
Plastic bags are a significant source of marine debris and are hazardous to marine animals, such as turtles and birds, which often confuse plastic bags as a source of food and ingest these bags, causing reduced nutrient absorption and death.
Tips to Remember Your Reusable Bags:
Set your car keys on your bag.
Keep reusable bags in the trunk of your car and put a small note on the dashboard or your shopping list to remind you to grab them. Once you unload your groceries at home, put the bags back into the trunk immediately so you’ll have them for your next trip.
Purchase a few compact reusable bags and keep them in your purse, jacket pocket, backpack, or attach them to a keychain.
Ask your children, spouse or roomate to remind you to bring your bags.
Keep bags in multiple places, like at home, in the car, and at the office.
If you still manage to forget your reusable bags, you can always put everything back into your shopping cart after you pay and unload directly from the cart into your car. Then bag the items to carry in when you get home.
Encinitas is BYOB – Bring Your Own Bag! Starting October 10th, the second phase of the bag ban will go into effect at local department stores. Be prepared – get your free bag at one of our bag blitz locations!
Do you have questions about the bag ban? Post them in the comments below!
Since last fall, ILACSD has received a variety of questions about how plastic bag ban laws will impact the way we shop. For today’s blog, ILACSD’s Director of Development and Marketing, Morgan, will focus on Encinitas’s plastic bag ordinance and tackle some frequently asked questions. Read on to get the answers to your questions and learn about upcoming reusable bag giveaways!
As you may have heard, the California statewide plastic bag ban is now on hold until it can be put on the ballot for a statewide vote. While the battle rages on in the case of California vs. Big Plastic, there is also some news about a local plastic bag ban. You may have heard that back in October 2014, the Encinitas City Council voted to establish an ordinance limiting the usage of single-use plastic carry out bags at local stores. Well, the first phase of that ban is set to go into effect on April 10th. I Love A Clean San Diego is working hard to make sure that Encinitas residents and businesses are informed about the changes before they go into effect. If you live, work, or shop in Encinitas, you can turn to us to get all of your questions answered about how “Encinitas Municipal Code Section 11.26” will actually work.
Also, starting this weekend, ILACSD will conduct a series of bag giveaways at local grocery stores in the community. So keep an eye out on our Facebook and Twitter pages as we announce give-away dates, time and locations.
Here’s a rundown of some of our favorite FAQs:
Why is the City of Encinitas banning single-use plastic carryout bags? Well, plastic bags are extremely lightweight and can act like balloons blowing out of garbage trucks and landfills. These flyaway bags litter our communities, enter storm drains, and eventually end up in the ocean. Plastic is the most common type of litter found on local beaches. Marine life often become entangled in plastic bags and can mistake plastic particles for food, causing harm and sometimes death to the animals. New research suggests that this plastic is making its way up the food chain and is potentially affecting the seafood we eat.
Marine life often become entangled in plastic bags and can mistake plastic particles for food, causing harm and sometimes death to the animals.
I heard that I will have to pay 10 cents to use my own reusable bag. Is this true? NO! Customers will now have two choices at checkout: bring your own reusable bags to carry your groceries at no cost (some retailers even offer a rebate for each reusable bag you bring) OR purchase bags at checkout. You can buy reusable bags or paper bags for your groceries at a minimum cost of ten cents each. If you forget your reusable bags at home and don’t want to pay for bags, you always have the option of loading groceries back into your cart and putting them directly in your car without any bags.
What about using biodegradable bags? A “biodegradable” plastic bag is not a solution for litter issues associated with plastics. These bags can only break down under very specific conditions and do NOT break down naturally in our waterways, posing a threat to animal life. To fully degrade, these bags require heat and specific bacteria present in industrial composting facilities, and we don’t have any of those facilities in San Diego County.
I line my trash cans with plastic bags from the grocery store. Now what can I use? Trash can liners and large trash bags will still be available for purchase in stores. To cut back on waste, you can buy heavier-weight plastic bags and reuse them after emptying waste into your curbside bin. To cut out plastic bags altogether, line the bottom of your trash can with newspaper or other paper, and rinse it out periodically after use.
I use plastic grocery bags to pick up pet waste. What do I do now? There will still be many plastic bags in circulation. You can use bags from bread, produce, bulk products, or cereal, or purchase a roll of small pet waste bags. To avoid using plastic bags altogether, you can bring last week’s newspaper or a waste-scooping device on your walk and use it to pick up after your pet. Check out other solutions to pet waste disposal in our blog “Scoop the Poop: Alternatives to Plastic Bags”.
I’m worried about bacteria on reusable bags. Are they sanitary? Plastic produce bags will still be available for wrapping meat, poultry, and seafood. Consider carrying these raw meat items in a designated reusable bag each time, separate from fresh fruits and vegetables. To keep your reusable bags clean, just use common sense and everyday hygiene. Throw your cloth/fabric tote bags into the wash with your laundry load to clean them periodically. For thick plastic reusable bags, wipe them clean with a sponge dipped in warm, soapy water and allow them to air dry before storing. Find cleaning tips for your bags and other eco-friendly cleaning tips on our Pinterest board “Clean and Green”.
If you have other questions that are not listed here, please share them in the comments below!
At our first Sustainable Living Series workshop – What to Know about H2O – I Love A Clean San Diego staff set out to tackle that very question. After reviewing the history of water in San Diego, participants rolled up their sleeves and dug into our repurposed planter activity. Using items salvaged from Goodwill as pots, we planted succulents, saving water and saving items from the landfill in one fell swoop.
