Post-it notes containing remnants of a long-forgotten to-do list. The empty cereal box lounging on the counter. A cardboard toilet paper roll. These items have something in common: They are often overlooked when it comes to recycling.
According to the city’s Environmental Services Department, San Diegans throw away enough recyclables each year to completely fill Petco Park five times over. The additional and unnecessary waste shortens the Miramar Landfill’s lifespan by seven months a year. Currently, the landfill is expected to reach capacity by 2012, forcing the city to seek another location to bury its trash.
Zero Waste San Diego, a local chapter of the nonprofit California Resource Recovery Association, would just as soon make landfills obsolete “” finding a second use for all trash.
Though an ambitious proposition, the idea is not so far-fetched.
According to Laura Anthony, Zero Waste’s chair, the issue of reducing waste beyond current levels is not a problem of access to donation centers.
“I think people need to look at their waste more and take more responsibility for it,” Anthony said.
In fact, the city provides blue recycling bins to single-family residences, and for those without recycling pick-up, recreation centers serve as drop-off locations, including Robb Field in Ocean Beach.
Zero Waste is currently experimenting with a pilot program on the peninsula to increase recycling and decrease waste. According to Anthony, the group plans on addressing the Ocean Beach town council and planning board in the hopes of creating a “zero waste community.” The grassroots effort will focus on organizing residents and like-minded nonprofits to work toward the shared goal of increasing recycling and reducing waste, with the hopes of affecting policy at City Hall.
One of the first educational events in that vein is a free screening of the much-talked-about movie “An Inconvenient Truth” at the Point Loma library at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31.
The screening will be followed by a discussion about ways the community and its residents can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental consultant Richard Anthony, billed as an international expert on resource management with more than 30 years in the field, will host a question-and-answer session following the movie.
Laura Anthony said the discussion is an important part of the event because Al Gore’s movie does not thoroughly address the simple solutions to global warming.
“We want to bring together people who are interested to talk about it and give them a solution,” Anthony said.
On selecting the film for the first movie screening, Anthony noted that global warming is a “sexy term” at the moment, one that has prompted people to engage in the debate about preserving natural resources. Recycling plays a big part in that dialogue, she continued, as it conserves air, water and land.
But recycling is not the only answer. Driving a hybrid, turning down the heat in the winter and buying local, organic foods are other methods of taking action.
“It’s all connected,” Anthony said.
The second installment in the library movie series, “Our Synthetic Seas,” is about plastics in the ocean. It will take place in February. The library is located at 3701 Voltaire St. For more information, call (619) 531-1539.