Trash Recycling News for Ventura Residents

Winter 2011FlashHappy Holidays to All

As we approach our 80th year in business, we are reminded of the values our parents, E.J. and Myra,

instilled in us – the importance of family and an unwav-ering commitment to our customers and the communi-

ties we serve.We are proud of the high level

of service we have provided since 1932 and resolve to maintain our

high standards in 2012 and for years to come as we move toward Zero Waste. Our mother Myra is now 96 years young and joins us in wishing you a joyous Holiday Season and Happy

New Year!J im, Myron and Ralph

Tips to ‘Green’ Your Holiday Season

It is estimated that an extra million tons of waste each week is generated between

Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Enough rib-bon is thrown away – about 38,000 miles – to tie a bow around the entire earth! With a little thought and planning, you can make your holidays a little “greener” and work toward Zero Waste.

K Give gift certifi cates, tickets to mov-ies or concerts, memberships, services or make a donation to a favorite charity.

z Consider consumable gifts. Visit our local farmers’ markets or growers for ideas.

K Give gifts such as t-shirts, backpacks, hats and socks made from recycled-content materials like Ecospun® manufactured from recycled plastic bottles or toothbrushes made from recycled yogurt containers.

c Save gas and support our Ventura merchants by buying locally.

W Wrap gifts in reusable paper or cloth bags or be creative and use hand towels, tablecloths, napkins, fabric remnant, maps, craft paper, newspaper or old posters.

W When shopping, bring your own reusable bags. Return plastic grocery bags to the store for recycling.

7 Use LED holiday lights for safety and energy savings. Solar-powered outdoor holiday lights are also available.

c For your holiday parties and gath-erings use reusable tableware, beverage con-tainers and utensils. Check with party rental places or buy an eclectic mix at a thrift store. If you must use disposable items, buy products made with post-consumer recycled content. (Remember - used paper plates, napkins and cups are not recyclable.)

Extra Trash Allowed After Holidays

As a special holiday feature, Harrison custom-ers may put out twice the amount of trash at no

extra charge during the two weeks after December 25. Please make sure the trash is in bags alongside the trash barrel. We also collect extra recyclables, but please make sure to fl atten all boxes and place along-side the recycling barrel as well.

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

E.J. Harrison & Sons and the City of Ventura make it easy for you to recycle your Christ-

mas tree. All you need to do is remove the ornaments,

hooks, lights, tinsel, bows, nails and tree stand. Cut the tree into four-foot sections and place in your yard waste barrel on your sched-uled pickup day. Please remember, how-ever, that fl ocked trees cannot be recycled.

Trees we collect will be will processed into various sizes of mulch. The material is used by Agromin to make several products that benefi t our farmlands, orchards, nurseries and our own gardens.

Continued on page 3

Page 2Winter 2011 Trash Flash

Community Memorial Health System: Saving Lives, Saving the Planet

Community Memorial Health System is renowned for saving lives. But did you know that CMHS has been taking huge steps to help save the planet?

The health system is anchored by century-old Community Memorial Hospital and includes Ojai Val-ley Community Hospital and nine Centers for Family Health. The system is as large as a small city, employ-ing more than 2,000 people. The health centers are located in Ventura, Oxnard, Ojai, Oak View, Fillmore, Santa Paula and Camarillo.

“We do an even better job of recycling than I real-ized,” said Michael Ellingson, vice president of market-ing and development, as he gathered information for this article.

Community Memorial Hospital has multiple blue recycling bins on each of its eight fl oors and there is a recycling compactor on the premises.

“We use our internal newsletter to encourage our employees to recycle,” Ellingson said. The two hospi-tals and the Centers for Family Health collect tons upon tons of recyclables which include cardboard, paper, bottles, cans, batteries, ink toners and even towels.

Community Memorial Hospital broke ground in September on a new hospital on property adjacent to the existing structure. Over 500 community members attended the event. Speakers included Ventura Mayor Bill Fulton, former Ventura County District Attorney Michael Bradbury and Lynn Bova, who gave birth to quintuplets at CMH in 2001.

This summer buildings were demolished on the site to make way for the new hospital and the amount of materials hauled away for recycling staggers the imagi-nation.

The hospital achieved an extraordinary diversion during the demolition phase, as 90 percent of materi-als were hauled away by Harrison Industries trucks to the Gold Coast Recycling Center and to Agromin. Recyclables from the demolition included 81.6 tons of iron, a ton of copper, 9.6 tons of P&S steel, 2.2 tons of aluminum, 3,600 tons of concrete asphalt and 30 tons of green waste.

Much of that tonnage ended up in Japan to help rebuild from the devastating earthquakes that ravaged that country recently, said George Harrison, general manager of Gold Coast Recycling.

“Community Memorial’s new hospital in Ventura aspires to be one of the few LEED certifi ed hospitals in the nation,” said Gary Wilde, President and CEO of CMHS. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Working with strategic partners Harrison Industries, Gold Coast Recycling and others,

Participants of the Sept. 14 groundbreaking pose in front

of an artist’s rendering of the new Community Memorial

Hospital.

the hospital is incorporating “green” principals, as de-fi ned by LEED for healthcare guidelines in the hospi-tal’s design, building processes and operations.

“Green is the right thing to do” is the banner of a fl ier the health system uses as its mantra as it moves forward with development of a new Community Memo-rial Hospital.

“Our strong commitment to patients, families, staff and the community motivate us to incorporate in the new Community Memorial Hospital an environment that conserves energy, reduces water consumption, uses renewable resources, recycles waste and reduces storm water run-off.

“The design team for Community Memorial Hos-pital continually investigates innovative strategies for green design, construction and operations.”

Green design elements for the new hospital include:u Preferred parking for fuel effi cient and car pool

vehicles.u Built on previously developed land.u Double and triple-glazed windows.u Flooring, furniture and fi nishes constructed

with refurbished or recycled materials.u Use of locally sourced materials.The new Community Memorial Hospital will be a

six-story facility that will encompass more than 325,000 square feet, making it 60 percent larger than the cur-rent hospital. It will be in complete compliance with state seismic codes.

Saving lives. Saving the planet. That’s a mission worth supporting.

Trash FlashPage 3

Winter 2011

‘Green’ Your Holiday SeasonContinued from page 1

Moving toward ‘Zero Waste’ Begins with You

Harrison Industries is committed to “Zero Waste” and we have in place a three-barrel residential curbside system that makes it

easy for our customers to do the right thing and recycle.

Always remember: Recycling starts with you. Follow the recy-cling, yard waste and trash guidelines printed on the back page of this “Trash Flash” and we guarantee it will get recycled.

There’s a misconception that it is OK to place recyclable materials such as glass, plastics, aluminum cans and paper products in your green trash contain-er, since they will be sorted at Gold Coast Recycling & Transfer Station. That is not the case! Trash is visually sorted at Gold Coast for contaminated materials such as paint cans, batteries and tires – items that are un-lawful to be buried in landfi lls. So if you, for instance, place a plastic bottle or any other recyclable item in your green trash barrel, it will end up in the landfi ll.

It’s just as important not to place trash, food scraps and wet paper in your blue recyclables container. “Wet waste” can contaminate recyclable materials and leave them unsalvageable. “Wet waste” can also weigh down plastic bottles as well as aluminum and tin cans so that they become too heavy to be picked out by our sorting line’s blowers and end up in our landfi lls.

For that same reason, you should always empty your plastic bottles and aluminum cans before plac-ing them in your blue recycling barrel. Half-empty cans and bottles – even cans and bottles with a small amount of liquid left in them – can be too heavy for our sorting line’s blowers to pick out.

Another misconception is that you have to clean your cans and bottles. Not true! Cleaning them wastes water.

To learn more about the sorting processes, see our videos online at www.ejharrison.com, www.goldcoas-trecycling.com and www.agromin.com.

c For holiday parties and gatherings put a marked recycling container next to a trash container for your guests’ convenience.

l Be sure to recycle aluminum, glass and plastic containers, metal cans, food boxes, cardboard, gift wrap (except foil or cellophane), gift boxes, greeting cards and catalogs. (No Styrofoam or plastic bags please.)

l Email your holiday greetings!K Take boxes and packing peanuts to mail service

stores for reuse. Styrofoam is not recyclable. If you need to put the packing peanuts in the trash, please make sure they are bagged and tied. Puncture the bag with a few small holes to let out air so the bag does not pop when it is compressed in the truck.

F Plan meals carefully to avoid excessive leftovers or send food packs home with your guests.

Have a Happy “Green” Holiday Season!

Scavenging in Trash & Recycling Barrels is Illegal

Once items have been placed in curbside and commercial trash and recycling bar-

rels, scavenging, removing or tampering in any way with the material is illegal, according to the Ventura Municipal Code. These activi-ties should be reported to the police.

Scavengers may be looking for more than aluminum cans and other California Redemp-tion Value materials. They may also be look-ing for anything with names, identifi cation numbers, bank statements or even credit card solicitations for identify theft purposes.

You should not approach people caught scavenging. Instead call the Ventura Police Department’s 24-hour, non-emergency num-ber, (805) 650-8010.

The Ventura Police Department also rec-ommends getting a description of the person or persons scavenging. If there is a vehicle in-volved, please note the color, make and model along with the license number. You may also contact the City’s Code Enforcement Depart-ment at (805) 658-4711.

Since the recyclables that E. J. Harrison & Sons collect are used to help offset service costs, scavenging costs all Ventura customers in the long run.

A few things you can do to reduce scav-enging are to put your recycling cart out as close to collection time as possible. Leaving it out the night before gives thieves a greater op-portunity to go through the material.

Page 4Winter 2011 Trash Flash

Printed on Recycled Paper

E.J. Harrison & SonsRecycling, Yard Waste and Trash Guidelines

STOPNo Hazardous

Waste!!These items are NOT accepted for

Trash or Recycling.u Hazardous Waste u Tires u TVs/Computer Monitors u Batteriesu Closed Containers u Oil or Paintsu Fluorescent Light Tubes u Medical Needles & Bulbs & Sharps

For information on how to safely dispose of these items, please call City of Ventura, (805) 652-4525.

What goes in the Trash?

What Doesn’t go in the Trash or any other cart?

Hopefully, very little. After you have recycled, composted, fi lled the yard waste cart, donated old clothing and goods, and done all of those good things and more – most of the rest can go in the trash.

How to Place Your Cart for Automated Collection

The automated arm of the collection truck needs room to grab the cart. Carts should be placed with the wheels away from the curb, 2-3 feet apart from each other and from objects such as mailboxes and cars.

Carts should be out by 7:00 a.m. on collection days and put away by 8:00 p.m. that same day.

2-3 ft.2-3 ft.

City of VenturaCity Manager: Rick Cole council Members: Neal Andrews, Brian Brennan, Cheryl Heitmann,

Jim Monahan, Carl Morehouse, Mike Tracy & Christy Weir

Extra trash?Call for roll-offs and bin rentals.

Open 6 days a week for self-haul trash, e-waste and recyclables buy-back.

Complete the recycling loop... get mulch and soil amend-ments at:

(805) 642-9236

www.ejharrison.com www.agromin.com(805) 647-1414

www.goldcoastrecycling.com(805) 485-9200

including nursery pots, yogurt containers and toys.

NO Styrofoam, Film Plastic,Plastic Bags or Shrink Wrap.

All Hard Plastics thru