solana center

Dates: Tuesday, Nov 4th OR Thursday, Nov 6th

Location: Joan Kroc Community Room - 6845 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92115

Directions: From the main entrance, turn left. We will be in the building to the left of the pool. It has a set of double glass doors - walk through the doors and continue straight into the Community Room.

Website: https://www.solanacenter.org/

This week we are hearing from the Solana Center! This Encinitas based organization focuses on educating the community about soil, water, and waste conservation. They focus on making green living and conservation practical for everyone, from the individual to businesses and local governments. They collectively work toward realizing their vision: “A world with landfills and oceans free of discarded resources. Small actions every day make a big impact.”

Before we talk about food waste and reducing our footprint through food conservation, let’s take a look at recycling and reducing our environmental impact. We’ve all heard that alliterative phrase ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ repeated for decades. And now, the phrase has expanded to ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Refuse’. In other words, try to lessen the environmental impact of our lifestyle through conscious choices. But why? Why do we need to bother, beyond throwing some paper and glass in the blue bins that are collected at our curb? Much of the conversation we have around waste and recycling beings with plastic. Plastic does not break down or bio-degrade back into the environment; it can exist practically forever. Even when plastic does break down into smaller pieces, those pieces are likely immortal. As these micro bits of plastic work their way through the environment, we are finding plastic in our food supply as well. 

You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Located between California and Hawaii, it is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. There are 5 such sites throughout our world’s oceans, but the Pacific site is the largest. As plastic enters the ocean, that which does not sink is carried by ocean currents to accumulate in these large floating islands of dangerous junk. 

Of course, ocean plastic pollution is not the full story. Plastic poses a problem in a variety of areas, including the production and consumption. Converting fossil fuels to plastics is a process that produces a number of pollutants, some of which leech into our food, like BPA. Additionally, there is just too much. Half of all plastic ever produced has been made in the last 13 years. Only 9% of the plastic produced is recycled each year and about 8 million tons of plastic enter our waterways each year. Plastic production continues to grow, and some experts believe that by 2050 the ocean will have more plastic than fish. 

We know not all plastic is created equal. Some plastic is made to be durable, reusable and is recyclable. Other plastics, unfortunately, are not great for us or the environment. Single use plastic poses the most danger to the environment. Things like plastic bags and styrofoam containers are very unlikely to be recycled and will end up in a landfill or in the ocean. Ultimately, much of this issue is due to manufacturers that continue to dump large volumes of low-value plastic onto poor regions that can ill afford to choose better alternatives or recycle the plastics.

So do we need to work on recycling? Do we have that much to recycle? In a word, yes. The United States produces more than 30% of the total waste on the planet, even though it is only home to 4% of the population. In 2014, Americans threw out over 258 million tons of trash. One Columbia University study estimates that Americans throw out 7lbs of trash each day, equaling a whopping 2,555 lbs per American per year! Even more shocking, that only accounts for a fraction of the solid waste in America, as industry generates the vast majority. 

An ecological footprint is the theoretical measure of the amount of land and water required to produce what it consumes and absorbs its waste. The richest countries in the world generally consume the most in way of resources and have the largest ecological footprint. In the map below, territory size shows the proportion of the worldwide ecological footprint made there:

Scientists estimate that the capacity of the earth or biocapacity is approximately 1.9 hectares, or 4.7 acres, per person. Currently, we are globally using almost 2.2 hectares per person. Despite this, there remains significant food and resource shortages in much of the world. 

For a quick way to calculate your carbon footprint, you can head to the World Wildlife Fund to answer some questions. 

(It is a calculator based on UK information, but it gives you a general idea. It is easier and quicker than any of the ones I found for calculating the US footprint, though you are welcome to google it and try them out!)

The food waste and yard trimmings make up more than a quarter of the US waste, but much of it could be composted. The paper and paperboard we throw out could be composted or recycled. So how do we handle all this waste? 

“Other” refers to combustion of some sort without energy recovery, while “incinerated” is combustion with energy recovery”. Unfortunately, much of the incineration produces greenhouse gases. 

We will learn more ways to recycle and how we can help reduce our contribution to the waste disposal on our trip this week! Remember to carpool as much as possible!

https://storyofstuff.org/the-story-of-plastic/the-problem-with-plastic/

https://www.thegeographeronline.net/4-patterns-in-resource-consumption.html

https://frontiergroup.org/reports/fg/trash-america

https://frontiergroup.org/reports/fg/trash-america

https://www.thegeographeronline.net/4-patterns-in-resource-consumption.html