The Living Desert Zoo & Gardens State Park is hosting an America Recycles Day event Sunday, Nov. 15, at the park's visitor center.
America Recycles Day has always been on Nov. 15. Its purpose is to encourage recycling and the use of products made from recycled material. Recycling is not difficult. It just takes a commitment. It sends less material to the waste stream and results in consuming less precious and limited natural resources.
This is the first year for a group committed to local recycling efforts to plan and host an event. The event will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the visitor center with exhibits and demonstrations. Sponsors of the event are Living Desert State Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, CARC/Rainbow Recycling, New Mexico Environmental Department and Soil and Water Conservation District.
Greg Baker with NMED will present a free hands-on composting workshop on how to build a simple backyard composting pile. The workshop begins at 1 p.m. and is limited to 40 participants. For more information, call the park at 887-5516.
Judith Ortego with the Soil and Water Conservation District will also be at the event handing out low-flow water-conserving shower heads. Lori Mitchell will represent New Mexico State University-Carlsbad recycling efforts. Deanna Taylor of Keep Carlsbad Beautiful will be on hand to demonstrate making paper from recycled paper material, said Kathryn Law, interpretive ranger II at the park.
"This is the first year
we've done this and if it works well we'll try to set it up on an annual basis," Law said.
Mary Garwood, manager of Rainbow Recycling, said the event Sunday is letting people in the community know the services available. The city of Carlsbad Solid Waste Department works in conjunction with Rainbow Recycling.
Garwood explained that 33 percent of recyclable material nationwide is recycled, 11 percent in the state of New Mexico is recycled and 25 percent in Eddy County is recycled.
"We're proud of the recycling efforts in Eddy County," Law said.
Garwood said future recycling of glass and metal is being looked into. The cost of transportation is what inhibits the process at the present time. Those involved in local recycling efforts hope in the future a solution could be found and put into action locally.
"Our pilot curbside recycling has been definitely worth it and future plans are to expand that service," she said.
Garwood wanted to stress to those who recycle that food and restroom trash is troubling when found during the sorting process. She sees it as a respect and courtesy issue for the developmentally disabled clients that work at the recycling center.
"It's all the trash and junk that slows us down," Garwood said. "It would be nice if it ideally all came in clean."
"As long as people are trying to recycle and trying to do the right thing we're happy but please feel free to call us if you're not sure whether something is recyclable," she added
Kathy Elmore, representing the Carlsbad Caverns recycling efforts, said the Ortega family that owns the concessionaire Carlsbad Caverns Trading is very involved in recycling and going green.
"One of the family's big focuses is environmental issues and being green," Elmore said.
She added that Shane Ortega is currently testing a small scale kitchen scrap composting machine in his personal kitchen. He plans to test it at the Caverns' top side restaurant by composting 5 pounds of scraps at a time.
Elmore also shared the five final goals that came out of the two-day Pollution Prevention (P2) Recycling Workshop that was held in the first part of September at the Pecos River Village Conference Center.
Those goals were to create a new recycling center, assist with Rainbow Recycling expansion and upgrade, develop a communication plan for city recycling efforts, standardize the recycling message for Eddy County and develop a community-wide recycling strategic plan.
"I'm excited about this," Elmore said. "It's something proactive."
Richard Aguilar, environmental services manager for the city, shared important information for the community about electronic waste. E-waste is discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken electrical or electronic devices such as computers and printers, entertainment devices, mobile phones and other items such as television sets and microwaves.
The city, in conjunction with the county, hosts the annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day, held around Earth Day in April. Aguilar hopes the event will be held twice a year starting in 2010.
"A component of HHWC is collection of e-waste, which is typical household electronics," Aguilar said, noting Rinchem of Albuquerque handles the waste once it is collected locally. "Typical items received have been televisions of all sizes and shapes, computers and monitors, stereo equipment and microwaves."
"We have been holding the collection of e-waste at the last four HHWC events and the cost is free to all residents of Eddy County," Aguilar said. "The last couple of years we have been getting tons of computers."
Those needing or wanting to dispose of e-waste will have to wait until April during HHWC Day.
Why recycle?
Recycling conserves valuable natural resources
Recycling saves energy
Recycling saves clean air and clean water
Recycling saves landfill space
Recycling can save money and create jobs
Recycling facts
There is no limit to the amount of times aluminum cans can be recycled.
If all newspaper were recycled, about 250 million trees could be saved each year.
Americans throw away 25 million plastic beverage bottles every hour.
A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk and 26 gallons of bottled water annually. Make sure each container is recyclable.
Rainbow Recycling
Recyclable items include:
Newspapers, office and computer paper, envelopes and junk mail, cardboard (corrugated only), magazines and phone books, aluminum soda cans and plastic (consisting of milk and water jugs, soda bottles and other No. 2 containers -- rinsed and without caps). Recyclable material with the numbers 1 and 2 are accepted. Material numbered 5 is not accepted.
Please do not include the following items in recycle bins:
Glass (future plans in process), plastic bags (take them to the recycle bins at Albertsons and Wal-Mart), aerosol cans, batteries, motor oil and cooking oil containers, paint cans, rubber products, medical products, sanitary products, Styrofoam, egg cartons, wax coated cardboard (cereal boxes, etc., anything shiny), rice cardboard (soda boxes, etc.), food and garbage, tin cans, electronics and grass clippings.
When in doubt, call Rainbow Recycling at (575) 885-0917. It's better to be sure.
Rainbow Recycling January-June Report
2008 2009 Increase
Cardboard 72.5 tons 83.5 tons 15.2 %
Newspaper
16 tons
43.3 tons
170.1%
Office paper 8 tons 39 tons 387.5 %
Plastic 0.65 tons 3.4 tons 423.1%
Aluminum 1 ton 1.1 ton 10 %
To see more of the Carlsbad Current-Argus, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.currentargus.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Carlsbad Current-Argus, N.M. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
News Provided by
