Recycling

Introduction

Recycling is a great way to reduce not only the amount of waste being sent to landfills every day, but also to reduce the need to harvest new materials from environmentally destructive processes like mining and timber harvesting. UC Santa Barbara’s now robust  campus-wide recycling program actually began with AS Recycling (ASR) and has since grown to include ASR; Physical Facilities; Environmental Health and Safety; Housing and Residential Services; and other campus departments all working alongside Marborg Industries the campus and local community commercial waste hauler .

We are very lucky in Santa Barbara County that so many items can be recycled, including plastic bags (but not styrofoam). Of course, being able to recycle a lot of different products doesn’t help if the recyclables don’t make it into the proper bin, so UCSB has developed an impressive recycling infrastructure, including bins place around campus and recycling route riders to pick up the recyclable materials every day so that everything gets into the right channel of the waste stream. The route routers are students paid to ride bicycles specially designed to haul waste to the central collection area on campus.

Workshops

AS Recycling hosts workshops year round.

During fall quarter the Department of Public Worms (DPW) showed people how earthworms can be used to create a high quality soil amendment and how to construct compost bins to transform food scraps into earth friendly compost. They also learned about earthworm “tea” a liquid fertilizer that is sold by the DPW. The workshop was held at Recycling’s Eucalyptus Grove site on campus.

The DPW spring quarter workshop was all about container growing food. Attendees learned how to grow their own food in containers and to take control of what they eat! They had a chance to snack on some local produce, explore the DPW organic garden and take home seeds planted in recycled containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also during winter quarter DPW asked attendees “How Trashy Are You?” The workshop challenged participants’ knowledge and through an interactive game they  learned how “trashy” they are, i.e. how much trash they typically produce, and how AS Recycling reduces waste on campus. All attendees also had the chance to up-cycle a shirt into a reusable produce/grocery bag! Shirts were provided or participants were welcome to bring their own.