Practicing What We Preach

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

        Reduce , Reuse and Recycle is a rule of thumb that we not only emphasize to our customers, it’s what we practice daily at the City of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department. From our waste reduction educational programs to our recycling services, we believe that creating a more sustainable environment starts with reducing what goes into the trash. To this end, we are pleased to join bargainlink.com in producing a unique website which provides a wealth of local and national information about reusing all kinds of materials. Through our participation, the site has been completely redesigned to make it more accessible and more useful to internet viewers.

Goodwill Industries and the City of San Diego's Environmental Division operate a reuse site at the entrance to the Miramar Landfill.

        It is our hope that through the use of this site, the City of San Diego can more readily achieve the state mandated goal of fifty percent waste diversion. In 1989, the state passed Assembly Bill 939 (AB-939) which mandated all cities and counties in California to reduce waste entering landfills by fifty percent by the year 2000. If that percentage was not achieved, the state could impose potential fines of up to $10,000 per day. Although the City ‘s current waste diversion rate is forty- four percent, we have been given a time extension until the end of 2004 to divert another 200,000 tons from the landfill to reach the mandated fifty percent goal. AB-939 stipulates that recycling and reuse, as promoted in this site, should always be the preferred way of dealing with waste. Instead of throwing everything away in what may be an expedient manner, we ask you to recycle and to reuse what someone else may discard. Many of those items are near new and the resources to find them are located on www.bargainlink.com.

        Another way you can recycle is to donate your used items at the City-sponsored collection center operated by Goodwill Industries at the entrance to the Miramar Landfill, 5165 Convoy Street, San Diego, CA 92111. (858) 268-8971. Hours: M.-Sun. 7 AM-4:30 PM. For more informtion about the City’s recycling and waste reduction programs at your home or office plus a listing of upcoming events, please visit our website at www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services/ or call our Customer Service Department at (858) 694-7000.