 | GET A GREAT DEAL ON RAIN BARRELS - SUPPLIES LIMITED!
by Christine Wied
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A rain barrel discount program for City of Ventura residents is now available through Environmental Sustainability and Ventura Water. Working in cooperation with Smith Pipe and Supply at 3060 Sherwin Avenue in Ventura, the Channel/Bushman 60-gallon rain barrel with a retail value of $85.oo will be available for $42.oo plus tax at their store with a Rain Barrel Discount Voucher.
READ MORE.
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Commercial Business Recycling - It's THE LAW as of July 1, 2012
What every Ventura Business Needs to know!
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Conserving our natural resources is essential for the health and wellbeing of our community and our planet.
In keeping with this sentiment, beginning July 1, 2012, the State of California has made business recycling mandatory. According to the newly enacted legislation (AB341), businesses that generate 4 cubic yards or more of trash per week (the equivalent of a large commercial dumpster) and all multifamily complexes with five or more units (regardless of the amount of trash they generate), will be required to recycle.
Compliance is determined by solid waste service capacity. Businesses that share trash service accumulating the 4 cubic yards or more of trash per week must comply even if individually, the businesses do not generate that amount of trash. READ MORE.
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What Can YOU Do To Help Preserve Ventura's Environment?
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 Ventura's Natural Beauty
Let's keep it that way!
April 2012
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| Composting Workshop
Saturday, April 21, 10:00am
Cornucopia Community Gardens
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by Christine Wied
On Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. there will be a FREE Composting Workshop sponsored by the City of Ventura Environmental Sustainability Division. Held at the Cornucopia Community Gardens on Telephone Road (between Johnson Drive and Ramelli Avenue), there will be a hands-on demonstration of composting and vermiculture (composting with worms) techniques. If you want to get started composting for the first time or find out how to get your compost pile working more efficiently, this is the workshop for you.
Composting is nature's recycling of organic material such as food scraps, leaves, and grass into a valuable soil amendment that can be used to enhance your garden, potted plants, and lawn. More than 20% of Ventura's waste can be easily transformed into valuable soil amendments through composting. Using compost may also reduce water, chemical fertilizer and pesticide need while keeping food waste and organic matter out of the landfill.
There will be a drawing for a free composting bin for those who attend. City of Ventura residents may receive a discount on a compost or worm bin through Green Thumb Nursery with a special coupon. The coupon will be available at the workshop or may be downloaded at www.cityofventura.net/pw/es/resrecycling or by calling 805 652-4584.
The workshop will conclude with a demonstration of a new rain barrel available through Smith Pipe and Supply in Ventura. Capturing rainfall for use in your garden is just one example of wise water use. City of Ventura residents may participate in a special subsidy program through Environmental Sustainability and Ventura Water to get a discount on the rain barrel. Vouchers for this program are also available at www.cityofventura.net/pw/es/resrecycling or by calling 805 652-4584. Proof of residency is needed to receive the discount on the rain barrel. The subsidy is subject to availability.
For more information on the composting workshop or rain barrel program, please contact Christine Wied at 805 652-4584.
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 | Safe & Easy Ways To Dispose of Toxic Household Hazardous Waste (HHW)
| Do you have any of these items you'd like to dispose of?
Batteries (auto & household) Aerosol cans Fluorescent tubes & compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) Paint Motor oil and filters Gasoline Pesticides and fertilizers Paint thinners and lacquer Pool chemicals Medical Sharps Non-narcotic medications These items are illegal to place in the trash. So how can you safely dispose of them? The City of Ventura's Environmental Sustainability Division hosts FREE monthly Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection events every third Saturday of the month (except in December) for city residents and small, local businesses. This month the event is April 21. READ MORE. |
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Local Teen Leads High School Waste Assessment Program
By Maryann Ridini Spencer
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LtoR: Student Lujain Al-Saleh and Environmental Specialist, Jill Sarick
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Lujain Al-Saleh, a student at Ventura's Foothill Technology High School (foothilltech.org), doesn't like trash. So, this month, as part of her school's senior student community service requirement, she led a Hero project in waste assessment in the school courtyard.
 
Ten students dumped the contents of all the trash receptacles at the school on the lawn onto huge tarps, dividing the waste into categories such as: 1-Styrofoam (or cardboard) trays, 2-spork packets, 3-milk and juice boxes, cartons and non-recyclable beverage containers, 4-fruits and vegetables, 5-trash, 6-litter and 7- recyclable items (cereal cups, recyclable bottles, pudding cups and snack-ables).
READ MORE.
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Ocean Friendly Gardens
Make Your Landscape and Garden Earth-Friendly with Ocean Friendly Gardens
When it rains, water that meets impermeable surfaces (driveways, streets and other hard surfaces), runs off into streets picking up sediment, debris, pesticides and fertilizers, oil, animal excrement and more. The polluted water is directed into the drains on our streets (where you often see stenciled signs asking us not to dump pollutants). From there, these toxic substances are piped into our creeks, rivers and oceans - untreated. This same runoff also happens on a daily basis during dry months, from overwatering landscapes to landscape sprinklers overshooting onto streets or people hosing down driveways or cars into the street.
This "urban runoff " is the number one source of ocean pollution.
Surfrider Foundation creating Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG). These gardens apply CPR - Conservation, Permeability and Retention© -to revive the health of our watersheds and oceans:
CPR promotes water conservation by education and outreach regarding what constitutes a properly installed irrigation systems and healthy watering practices. Cultivating a healthy soil so that a landscape and garden can "drink in" the water and moisture it's provided, is permeability.Retention, of the rainwater that falls, by use of water saving instruments such as rain barrels and rain chains, is how we capture water in order to conserve it and put it back into the garden landscape.READ MORE!
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| March 2012 NEWS Highlights
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On March 14, the Ventura County Star ran an article, "Ventura Program helps business recycle, reuse." Reporter Hannah Guzik, followed Environmental Specialist Courtney Lindberg on her business assessment of Himalaya Restaurant (35 W. Main Street, Suite A). Courtney met with restaurant owner, Anup Rimal.
Starting April 9, at various locations around the City, you'll see Eco-Friendly Clear Channel billboards featuring an Environmental Sustainability message to recycle used motor oil!
This month Sustainable
Ventura began regular podcasts on iTunes. LISTEN &
At the 20th Annual Spring Home & Garden Show at the Ventura County Fairgrounds March 16-18, Environmental Specialist Christine Wied educated audiences on a number of recycling and composting practices! READ MORE. |
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Environmental Sustainability
is Everyone's Responsibility! 
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