New meaning has been given to the saying, “a little goes a long way,” as a Rancho Santa Margarita family and a local business prove that minimal recycling efforts make a big impact on the community.
The City of Rancho Santa Margarita and CR&R Waste and Recycling recently sponsored a contest to find the most innovative and conscientious recyclers in the community. Avila Apartments and the Ledford Family were recognized for their dedication to recycling. To reward their efforts, each received three months of free trash collection service from CR&R.
The Ledford’s (Mark and Lynn, Jamie, Courtney, Steven and Grayson), have adapted their everyday lifestyle to adhere to creatively helping the environment. Lynn Ledford says, “We have made it our family challenge to try to be more resourceful in our daily lives, at home and at our business. We’ve made many small changes that together, have really made a difference in how we manage our consumption and waste.”
Their business, Cal Elite, is a youth sports center offering gymnastics, swimming, dance, cheer, tumbling, birthday parties and summer camp for children 6 months old to 18 years old. As part of the summer camp this year, children will learn how to maintain a garden, in honor of the Coble children.
Everything from the Ledford household routine down to the kid’s crafts is resourceful. The children often collect items, such as pinecones or shells to use for art projects and at Christmas they harvested their own mistletoe. The kids put their creative minds to work last summer when they made garden lamps out of the albeit gourds growing in their backyard. They painted them, used a Dremel tool to carve intricate designs, and put re-chargeable LCD lights in them.
The family’s every day efforts include using cloth grocery bags while shopping, dutifully separating recyclables from trash, using a clothes line in the backyard, replacing their gas mower and lawn equipment with a push mower and electric edger, using cloth towels instead of paper towels, reusing plastic cups instead of buying bottled water, and recycling all their electronics, printing cartridges, cell phones and eye glasses.
Avila Apartments in Rancho Santa Margarita has also shown an overwhelming effort in everyday recycling. Unlike many apartments, they have gone above and beyond their required duties. Recently, they’ve placed recycling bins in every enclosure of their buildings. Their maintenance crews ensure that items are placed in the proper bins and redistributed to prevent overflow. All non-landfill items such as electronics, batteries, and toner are collected and taken to proper disposal places.
Property Manager, Sevilla Alexander mentions the importance of getting the residents involved. “We try to make it easy for the residents to recycle. All residents are given “Living Green” reusable canvas shopping bags as well as rolls of 100% recycled tissue paper and paper towels.”
The administrative office, in their environmental efforts, always prints on both sides while only using 100% recycled paper. They have done away with disposable cups, plates and flatware as well.
Originally, Avila Apartments had 23 three-yard trash bins of trash, serviced twice a week. This adds to a total of 148 yards of trash be taken to the landfill per week. In January 2007, they added recycling bins and reduced their trash service to 18 three-yard trash bins, for a total of 108 yards per week.
Since August 2006, Avila has diverted about 650 tons of material waste away from the landfill.
For more information about how your business or family can enhance recycling efforts, contact Nate Farnsworth, Recycling Coordinator for the City of Rancho Santa Margarita at nfarnsworth@cityofrsm.org or 949.635.1800 extension 6704.
Filed under: Rancho Santa Margarita
