Adventures in Sustainability Workshop

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.

See you there!
Register today!

Save Your Scraps Workshop

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.

See you there!
Register today!

Green Routines Workshop

Green Routines Workshop

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.

See you there!
Register today!

Save Your Scraps Workshop

Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Chula Vista to bring you a Zero Waste Workshop focused on organics! On Saturday, January 26, 2019, we will be hosting the Save Your Scraps Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the Montevalle Community Center located at 840 Duncan Ranch Road, Chula Vista, CA 91914. 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. 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.

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.

See you there!
Register today!

Save Your Scraps Workshop

Chula Vista Organics Workshop

Join ILACSD as we team up with the City of Chula Vista to bring you a Zero Waste Workshop focused on organics! On Saturday, November 3, 2018, we will be hosting the Save Your Scraps Workshop from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the Otay Recreation Center located at 3554 Main Street, Chula Vista, CA 91911. 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. 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.

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.

See you there!
Register today!

Save Your Scraps Workshop

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!

Green Business Solutions Workshop

Green Business Solutions 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.

See you there!
Register today!

What’s that Smell? Ani’s Compost Journey

Several members of the ILACSD team compost food scraps at home. While our previous compost blogs have focused on vermicompost, composting organic material with the help of worms, it is isn’t the only option for those with limited space. Ani, our Recycling Programs Manager, recently added a small, easy to turn, worm-free compost bin to her home to make the most of her food scraps. Read on to learn more about her compost journey and one of the trials she faced early on – smelly compost.  

MILACSD holiday party 2015 (41)y journey with compost started about a year ago when my boyfriend and I decided that we wanted to invest in a compost bin for our food scraps. The first step was determining what type of bin I needed that would best suit my schedule and needs. It is important to note that every compost pile and bin is different, for example, I chose to purchase a compost tumbler to limit the time it takes to manually turn the contents in the pile with a shovel. This might not be the case in every household though. My compost bin instantly mixes when I spin it, which is convenient for me and needless to say that it takes less than a minute to turn.

Compost Pile
An look inside Ani’s compost bin showcasing a healthy balance of greens and browns.

When I started collecting food scraps for the bin, I found myself with an overly stinky compost pile. I had missed an important component of composting practices…keeping the ratio of nitrogen to carbon just right. This balance between nitrogen and carbon is key to having a successful compost pile. Carbon-rich materials like leaves, mulch, wood chips and nut shells are referred to as “browns” and nitrogen-rich materials like food scraps are referred to as “greens.” I was so excited to have a place to store my food scraps, or my “greens,” that I neglected my “browns” contribution to the compost bin. To offset the smell, I placed shredded newspaper in the pile as my “browns” because of the lack of “browns” in my backyard.

Composting is definitely a work of art with an environmental twist. Maintaining that balance between “greens” and “browns” is a small component of it and this was just one issue that required some research on my part. It’s safe to say that my experience with composting has been an interesting and informative one.

Compost Bin
Here’s an example of what Ani’s bin looks like – compact and easy to turn.

Remember that every compost pile is different and may require several changes to the formula before it starts to look (and smell) like its processing your organic materials correctly.

Stay tuned for my follow-up blog where I will share my best practices for pest control!

If you’re looking for more composting resources, check out our one-stop recycling database, WasteFreeSD.org!

 

 

ILACSD Debuts Zero Waste Workshops

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Emily Nelson, Education Manager

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?

10.7.15 - SLS (33)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 a Laundry 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.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce0_SXGPUvk]

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!  

Zero-Waste-Home-Workshop
Click the image to register!

Visit www.cleansd.org/e_community.php for more information and to register.

 

No yard, no problem! Composting in small spaces.

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Today’s blog comes from our Hotline Manager, Amanda!

Earlier this year, our Hotline Manager, Amanda, wanted to increase her composting knowledge, much like our Education Manager and Master Composter-in training, Erika. After taking a series of classes, Amanda wanted to share these two new methods that are great for small spaces. Read on to learn the basics of two innovative composting methods; perhaps you’ll find one that works for you! 

Many of you already know about traditional backyard composting, but there are other options out there to help you recycle your organics at home. Today, I’ll cover some basics on two composting methods you may not have heard of yet: vermicomposting and bokashi.

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Erika keeps her vermicompost under her desk and just as it should, it doesn’t smell!

Vermicomposting is a method of composting where organic material is broken down through the use of worms, red wigglers and red tigers being the best types of worms for this method. Vermicomposting is a great option for apartment and condo dwellers or those that do not have yard waste available. It can be done on a small scale (even under your kitchen sink!). Mostly food scraps are added to the vermicompost bin, as opposed to traditional composting where large amounts of carbon rich yard waste is needed. Vermicompost bins are available for purchase, and some residents may even be able to purchase subsidized bins – click here to see if you qualify! Or if you are feeling handy and you want to build your own vermicompost bin, check out some basic instructions from the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation.

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Practice makes perfect! At this station, kids learned how to sort out compostable vs. non-compostable items.

I Love A Clean San Diego has also integrated our newly acquired composting knowledge into some of our education offerings as well! Recently, we partnered with the City of Chula Vista & the Chula Vista Recreation Department to augment their youth after-school program, Empower Hour.  ILACSD educators lead  several hands-on activities during May & June to cover topics such as waste diversion, recycling and composting.  During the composting activities, the kids learned how to sort recyclables from compostable materials, and even got their hands dirty during the compost bin and worm discovery activities. If you’re interested in learning more about our education presentations, please contact our Education Manager, Erika at education@cleansd.org!

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Here’s ILACSD’s Program Assistant, Joseph leading the worm exploration station!

Here are 7 tips to maintaining your vermicompost bin:
1. Worms don’t have lungs, they breathe thru their skin. Fats and oil will coat their skin and they can no longer breathe, so avoid putting fatty or oily foods in your vermicompost bin.
2. Worms don’t like motion, vibration or extreme heat/cold.
3. Your bin should never smell, an odor would likely mean you are over feeding your worms.
4. If you are adding watery food, add some paper as well.
5. Moldy food is ok to add, the bacteria actually helps give the worms a head start on digesting the food.
7. Food scraps are best in smaller pieces.

Are you ready to start composting? Find local resources, such as bins, worms and classes near you at www.WasteFreeSD.org!

Bokashi is another composting method where you can pickle your food waste and thus store for later use in your traditional compost pile. What makes it unique is, unlike traditional composting, dairy, meat and bones can be used with this method. An inoculant, a combination of anaerobic microbes, is used to pickle the food waste and are available for sale online or you can also find online tutorials. Once you get your inoculated grain/paper and a 5gal bucket (or larger!) you are ready to go.

Simply add your food waste to the bucket and some inoculated gain/paper as you go along. After you bucket is full, it will take ten days to two weeks for your pickled food scraps are ready to be added to your traditional compost bin. As you are adding to your bokashi bin, place a plate on top to keep pests away. If you see white mold it is ok, only be concerned if you see green ,red or brown mold. Bokashi workshops are offered by Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, but keep an eye out for them on www.WasteFreeSD.org because they fill up fast!