This Thanksgiving, a local environmental group is pushing for San Diegans to make green choices for the holidays. They say that includes using a recycling mindset.
Ian Monahan, with I Love A Clean San Diego says, “Recycling is a huge part of our society today.”
His group’s mission is to inspire folks to actively conserve and enhance the environment through example, outreach, and local involvement.
“It creates tons of jobs and more importantly is preserves natural resources,” he says.
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A bit part of that mindset is helping people stay in the know about what they can and can’t recycle. His site, Waste Free San Diego, breaks down the dos and don’ts.
Monahan says, “It’s an online database and a hotline that people could call in and find out what to do with items that they don’t know what to do with. It could be items like batteries, old paint, old oil.”
NBC 7 spoke with Monahan about a mistake many folks make when they toss something into their blue bin that doesn’t belong. He says, “…there’s a term called wish-cycling.” It’s an “A” for effort type of thing.
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Monahan says, “they think that maybe because they’ve seen plastic bags recycled in other places, they can put it in the bin. You can’t put a plastic bag in the bin. Another mistake is leaving food or liquids in containers.”
His site can also prepare for recycling changes coming your way on January 1st. That’s when a new law takes effort that requires organic waste to be composted into a green bin. That will also be the spot for tossing out that greasy pizza and fried chicken boxes.
Monahan broke it down further, saying the green bill will accept, “…yard waste, food waste, your table scraps, everything we couldn’t recycle before is now going to be turned into compost and mulch."
