Compostiltskin

A bench outside Eaton Canyon Nature Center

What could get me to a workshop at 9:00 on a Saturday morning when I have an appointment at 11:30, another one at 1:30, another one at 5:00 and another one at 7:00, and somewhere in there I have to make two pies?

A $50 compost bin.

Last Saturday morning I got up early for the City of Pasadena Public Works Composting Workshop at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. Gabriel Silva and Mike Lara, two delightful guys who work extremely hard and love their jobs, led a casual workshop about composting. They even brought worms, so you can imagine how fun it was. I left knowing everything I need to know to get started. I don't even have to use worms if I don't want to, so I am totally down with composting.

You can spend as much as $500 on a fancy compost bin. You can spend a lot less for a crappy one, but if you live in the City of Pasadena you can get a pretty decent one from your city for $50
AND they will deliver it to your door
AND the bin actually costs the City $52 so this is a deal.

Compost bins are delivered Mondays and Wednesdays following the receipt of your check, which you make out to the City of Pasadena and mail to:

City of Pasadena
Public Works/Recycling
P.O. Box 7115
Pasadena, CA  91109

Include your street address so they know where to deliver the bin, and indicate the drop-off location you prefer (front porch, driveway, etc.). I suggest you also put in a note saying the check is for a compost bin, and ask them to bring you a copy of their nifty little booklet, Pasadena Recycling Resources, while they're at it.

The City wants you to compost because composting can diminish your contribution to the garbage dump by as much as one half. If enough of us do it, we can decrease the rate at which we fill our landfill. Composting cuts pollution and saves the City money. And you know who the City is--it is Us.

John asked me why I got so excited (I'm really excited) about my compost bin. Well, I do love a bargain, and it's not only the compost bin. It's FREE DIRT and I make it myself! It's not your, uh, garden variety dirt, either, but nutritious, black dirt that plants particularly enjoy. Let Rumpelstiltskin turn straw into gold. I'll make my gold from garbage.


Composting information: smartgardening.com
Pasadena Public Works: 626-744-4721 or 626-744-4087.

UPDATE: for those interested, I just received email notice that a meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee will take place tonight at 6:00PM at City Hall, in Training Room SO-18 (in the basement). For ADA accessibility, use ramps to access City Hall elevator. Metered street parking is free beginning at 6:00PM. Public comment is early on the agenda (limit your comments to 3 minutes), so be on time.

Recycling Efforts

I saw my friend and neighbor Linda Centell at the District 3 block party. You may remember Linda; she works with Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer. At the party, Linda introduced me to Gabriel Silva. Linda thinks the world of this guy and now that I know more about him, I do, too.

Gabriel is Pasadena's Environmental Programs Manager. Do you want to guess what that involves, or should I just tell you?

It'll take too long to get a consensus. I'll just tell you.

The Environmental Programs Manager is responsible for the following recycling programs: residential curbside, green waste, used oil, large venue/special events, compact fluorescent light bulb/battery, sharps (needles, syringes, etc.), e-waste (like the free collection events), composting and of course all those Christmas trees. His duties also include: elementary school education/outreach, household hazardous waste disposal, coordinating the Greening the Earth Day Festival, annual outstanding recycler awards, developing new programs to increase the City's waste diversion, managing several state grants, and reporting.

I know the above is true because I got it from Gabriel. Though it seems like a lot, a paragraph still doesn't give you the scope. Think of each of those duties as containing other duties. For example: did you know that a single Rose Bowl Game (large venue/special event) can generate as much as six tons of recycling trash? Someone has to pick up all that stuff. And sort it. Eeuw.

Silva doesn't collect all those cans himself. He coordinates the effort, though, by teaming up with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to employ 50 to 80 young adults to help at UCLA Home Games, the Rose Bowl Game and the BCS Bowl Game.

I'd say something about how well he delegates his staff, except if I understand it correctly there's only one staffer to delegate. So I have to assume Gabriel does a lot of the work himself. When Linda introduced us, we interrupted him collecting the trash bins from the block party. It was a Saturday, but these things have to be done and when you don't have underlings to do them for you, you do them yourself.

Just take another look at Gabriel's list of duties and think about that.

Ow. My back is killing me.

Here's more information about recycling in Pasadena.