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San Bernardino Zero Waste’s Blog is Back!

That’s right, after a bit of a hiatus the San Bernardino County Zero Waste Communities’ blog has made a triumphant return!  Not only will our blog be filling up with great material on a regular basis in upcoming weeks - we will also be launching a new Zero Waste quarterly e-Newsletter, which we hope you'll sign up to receive via email.
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 We have the answers you’ll be looking for. Come back soon, as the Zero Waste blog will be sharing green tips about how to make your year the most environmentally friendly to date.

 

In the meantime, please check out the useful  WhatCanIRecycle.org, which you may have seen on local bus shelters.

 

3 easy steps to recycling right:

 

1. Click on the city where you reside.
2. Take a look at the list of acceptable items that can be placed in your recycle bin.
3. Bookmark the page so you can reference it whenever you have a question about what is and what is not a recyclable item.

 

Remember, depending on where you live, your recycle container may be green, grey or blue so make sure you know which one you have! Are there any materials you have questions about? Let us know!
 
See you next week! Same time. Same place.

 

Making a Difference! Dumpster Diving Findings

For our follow-up waste characterization assessment, we got back into our hazmat suits for round two at the Materials Recycling Facility where we sampled and sorted through 525 lbs. of recyclables and 1,126 lbs. of trash. The contents were analyzed from the same Del Rosa Estates homes we sampled for our baseline measurement back at the start of February.





In order to compare “before” and “after” results, we wanted to measure our follow-up numbers against our baseline numbers to see if there were any substantial changes in both recycling and reducing the overall contamination rate (trash, household hazardous waste and other non-acceptable blue bin items).





Our outreach highlighting recyclables and non-acceptable blue bin items of the month sparked some tangible, successful results! In the follow-up, we found that there was a 54% decrease in blue bin contamination. This time around, 21% of recycling bin contents were contaminants, while 79% of recycling bin contents were recyclables, cutting our contamination percentage by more than half compared to our baseline measurement. Historically, the average contamination rate in the City of San Bernardino is about 40%. Our baseline assessment affirmed this, as we discovered a 46% contamination rate. Dropping that rate through a tailored outreach plan coupled with amazing community energy, down to 21% is quite an achievement.

Check out the table below that shows the amount of recyclables and contamination we observed in the recycling bin at the beginning and end of the project.





This 54% contamination reduction observed from the wrap-up assessment is meaningful because it shows us that together, we made a real difference! Del Rosa Estates, the pilot area, has been a phenomenal participant showing that they truly care about recycling right.
We want to give a special thanks to our terrific partners who’ve made this Curbside Recycling Pilot Program successful and possible: The City of San Bernardino and Del Rosa Estates Neighborhood Action Group (DRNAG)! At the end of the day, most importantly, we needed the participation of the residents – so great job Del Rosa Estates for kicking bad habits to the curb and recycling right.

Check out our photo stream to see the rest of the pictures from our assessments!

 
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Zero Waste Photos