Three Simple Things YOU Can Do
For the Environment at Home!
1. Recycle That Awful Styrofoam
Styrofoam is basically outlawed in the City of Santa Barbara. It's terrible stuff that NEVER breaks down in the environment, disintegrates into smaller and smaller pieces that blow in the wind until ending up in the ocean, where fish eat it, thinking it's food.
BUT, next time you receive a package packed in Styrofoam peanuts - do not throw them in the trash! Take the product out of the packing material, makes sure there's no tape or paper, just the styrofoam, tape up the box, and send it to:
Foam Fabricators, Inc.
1810 S. Santa Fe Ave.
Compton, CA 90221
Actually, that's where we send ours because we're in Southern California. There are two other locations in California - and in other states as well.Click here find the addresses for other regions. It's almost too good to be true, so we called Foam Fabricators in Compton and they said absolutely they will accept it - and repurpose it. You can also break up the big pieces of Styrofoam that pack your new TV Screen, electronic equipment, etc. and send that stuff, too - just tape up the original box. YES, it costs money to send, but Styrofoam is extremely light and shipping fees are minimal. You'll get more than your money's worth in feeling good.
Click here for facts on Mail-Back Recycling for EPS (Expanded polystyrene).
2. Home Planting
Maybe HTO is the last to know, but only recently we found out from a knowledgeable gentleman in the Home Improvement Center garden shop in Santa Barbara that Miracle-Gro plant food is terrible for the ocean. The reason? It's a synthetic fertilizer. When synthetic fertilizers run off into the water system, they can serve as pollutants and thus cause eutrophicationto occur, which is essentially the presence of too much nitrogen in a body of water. This can cause life to rapidly die off, and it kills both animals and plants in the water.
The Home Improvement guru told us that much better is the line of Dr. Earth organic plant food. He said Washington and Oregon states have already made the move toward organics, to protect precious salmon fisheries.
3. Recycle Film Plastics (Bread Bags, Air Pillows, & Bubble Wrap)
Heal the Ocean salutes the Community Environmental Council (CEC) and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (SBCK) for initiating public awareness ofAblitt’s Fine Cleaners “Recycle Plastic Bags & Film Packaging” Program.Ablitt’s has been collecting film plastics and turning them into plastic pellets that are then used for home and garden products. This program helps keep plastics out of the ocean and our landfills.
Please save the following items for the program:
Retail, carryout, produce, newspaper, bread, and dry cleaning bags (clean, dry and free of receipts and clothes hangers);
Zip-top food storage bags (clean and dry);
Plastic shipping envelopes (remove labels), bubble wrap and air pillows (deflate);
Product wrap on cases of water/soda bottles, paper towels, napkins, disposable cups, bathroom tissue, diapers, and female sanitary products
Furniture and electronic wrap;
Plastic cereal box liners (but if it tears like paper, do not include).
You can drop off the above materials (as long as they are clean and dry) at three locations, including Ablitt’s (14 W. Gutierrez St.), the CEC office (26 W. Anapamu St. 2nd floor), or SBCK (714 Bond Ave.) between 9am and 5pm.Ablitt's, by the way, is a really nice cleaning establishment, and some of us in the HTO office have switched laundry services. Thank you, Ablitt's for instituting such a great program to help the environment!