Outreach

The 411 on Film Plastic Recycling in Santa Barbara

July 6, 2020 by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

Plastic film – also known as plastic film packaging – is soft, lightweight polyethylene packaging used for grocery, bread, zip-lock, and dry-cleaning bags. It’s also used as a wrapper around products such as paper plates, napkins, bathroom tissue, and diapers.

Many recyclers don’t accept film plastics because the material is often contaminated or torn in the recycling bin, thereby losing its value. Film plastics such as plastic bags also tend to jam up sorting conveyor belts at recycling facilities, causing the machines to be shut down.

However, Santa Barbara has a vibrant film plastics recycling program that was launched by Sasha Ablitt, owner of Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners. After taking over her family’s dry-cleaning business, Ablitt noticed the mounting plastic waste that the company was generating from single-use garment bags, and she was determined to find a more environmentally friendly solution. She discovered a handful of companies that accept bags and convert them into plastic pellets. She began gathering film plastic and purchased a machine to bale and compress it before sending on for recycling. The film plastic is picked up by a company called Trex, that melts it down and mixes it with virgin plastic to create home and garden products, including outdoor decking materials.

In 2018, after several years of recycling her business’s film plastic, Ablitt realized the program could also serve as a collection site for the public. Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Community Environmental Council (CEC) partnered with Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners to provide additional support and create more public drop off centers. Channelkeeper and CEC—with the help of volunteers—hand-sort the plastic and perform quality control checks to ensure that the materials are high-quality and able to be recycled. Since this program became open to the public, 12,000 pounds of film plastic have been recycled.

At the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, the film plastic recycling project was temporarily suspended. However, as businesses begin to re-open in our community in the coming weeks, it will re-open on an appointment-only basis. Drop off centers at Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and CEC offices as well as at Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners will again accept film plastic for recycling. Ablitt’s will be hosting film plastic drop off events that you can register for online and CEC and Channelkeeper will be available by appointment only. More information will be available on partner websites.

From now on, there will also be training requirements to participate in the program, in order to avoid sorting errors and contamination issues. Community members will now have to sort their own film plastic with a trained volunteer or staff person, and will have to take home any plastic waste that is not accepted for recycling. We greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts to recycle and your commitment to doing it properly.

What you can recycle:

Retail, carryout, newspaper, dry cleaning bags (clean, dry, and free of receipts and clothes hangers)
Bread bags or tortilla bags turned INSIDE OUT and shaken free of crumbs
Plastic shipping envelopes (remove labels/tape as best you can), bubble wrap, and air pillows (deflate)
Product wrap on cases of water/soda bottles, paper towels, napkins, disposable cups, bathroom tissue, diapers, and female sanitary products
Furniture and electronic wrap
Plastics with a recycle number 2 and 4
White Amazon mailers
Clean ziplock bags (remove tabs)

PRO TIP: If the plastic stretches with your thumb and rips in a jagged edge, it is recyclable. If it crinkles and rips straight, it is not recyclable.

December 7, 2020 Channelkeeper has suspended our film plastic collection program for the time being during the stay-at-home orders. We will resume once it’s safe to do so. Please check this page for the latest information.

Please note that all drop off locations are now available by appointment only. Please email Penny@sbck.org if you would like to schedule a drop-off at Channelkeeper’s office. To sign up to receive info about film plastic collection events at Ablitt’s, please visit https://ablitts.com/filmplastic/.

Environmental Actions You Can Take While Social Distancing

April 2, 2020 by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

[En Español]

The Santa Barbara Channelkeeper team sincerely hopes you are healthy and safe in the face of this unprecedented moment in our history. As our community navigates these uncertain times, Channelkeeper is continuing our work to protect the health of our environment and our community by advocating for clean water, combatting pollution, monitoring water quality, and advancing climate-smart water supply strategies for the South Coast—all while practicing social distancing. And you can too.

The weeks ahead may be tumultuous, but they may also provide additional opportunities to observe nature closely and notice the miracles amid the mundane. We encourage you to take time to connect with your waterways and take positive actions to protect them. We’ve put together some easy ways for you to do just that while also observing social distancing and keeping yourself and others safe. Please join us!

1) Review your household water use with a water audit to see where you can effectively implement conservation measures.

2) Take a tour of your yard to determine how much water your landscaping really needs, where you can capture rain, disconnect downspouts, and reduce imperviousness. Use the CA Water Budget Program and check your sprinkler system for leaks to stay on track with your water savings. Contact Channelkeeper to get a beautiful 60-gallon oak barrel repurposed from aging wine into a rain barrel and start harvesting the rain!

3) Plant a water-wise organic garden. Whether you plant veggies and herbs to feed your family, native shrubs, or a pollinator sanctuary, planting a garden will nourish your spirit.

4) Filter your fleece. Use the time at home to wash all of your favorite fuzzy clothing without sending micro-fibers down the drain and out to the ocean with the help of a micro-fiber filtering bag.

5) Clean up your beach or creek – After the recent rains there is a lot of trash littering our local creeks and beaches. Protect the ocean while also enjoying a healthy dose of fresh air. Grab a bucket, glove up, and head out!

6) Survey your kitchen, refrigerator, and pantry for single-use plastics. Find ways to reduce your plastic dependency and document your plastic reduction strategies on social media.

7) Sign a plastic reduction petition to support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, a bill that holds the plastics industry, beverage makers, and other companies financially responsible for dealing with the waste they create.

8) Educate yourself about important water issues facing our community. Read up on oil platform decommissioning or Channelkeeper’s efforts to restore flows to the Ventura River. Learn about ocean acidification, sea level rise, or other relevant local water topics on Channelkeeper’s website.

9) Explore your watershed. Go on a hike along a creek. Getting out in nature is good for the body and the soul. Walk on the beach and feel the texture of rain-spattered sand beneath your bare feet. Close your eyes and listen for the whistle of songbirds overhead or the gurgle of water. Maybe you’ll find a prism in a puddle.

10) Amazon Smile: If you’re shopping from home (hello hand sanitizer and toilet paper!), please use Amazon Smile and select Santa Barbara Channelkeeper as your beneficiary of choice. It costs you nothing but makes a difference for Channelkeeper and local water quality!

11) Connect and engage with us on social media. Talk to us on Facebook and Instagram. We want to hear about how you are keeping your spirits up, working for the environment, and finding community while practicing social distancing.

12) Peruse an ocean-inspired classic book like The Sea Around Us, Blue Hope: Exploring and Caring for the Earth’s Magnificent Ocean, of Log From the Sea of Cortez. Enjoy ocean poetry paired with paintings in Santa Barbara artist Mary Heebner’s On the Blue Shore of Silence.

13) Listen to a NOAA podcast to explore beneath the ocean’s surface without ever getting wet.

14) Check out this recent TV interview with Channelkeeper’s executive director Kira Redmond on TVSB’s 805 Focus.

15) Start a Facebook Fundraiser for Channelkeeper. Ask your friends to join you in supporting clean water! Whether they donate $5 or $500, every contribution makes an impact.

The coming months are likely going to test our health care system, our economy, and our society. That’s why it is so important that communities like ours face this challenge together and find ways to help and support one another. We’ll offer more community resources and opportunities to show your love for the ocean in the coming weeks, and we hope to hear from you! In the meantime, we hope you stay healthy and safe!

In solidarity,

The Channelkeeper team

[En Español]

Celebrating 20 Years of Clean Water and Community Impact

February 21, 2020 by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

For 20 years Santa Barbara Channelkeeper has served our community as a vigilant watchdog and tenacious advocate for the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds. We’ve successfully championed stronger policies to better protect our water resources, stopped scores of illegal discharges into the Santa Barbara Channel and its tributaries, removed tons of trash from local beaches and creeks, collected and leveraged much-needed scientific data on the health of our streams, beaches and Channel, engaged 4,500 volunteers in our programs, provided environmental education and exploration for 36,000 youth, and so much more.

None of these achievements would have been possible without the generous support of our community and the many partners we’ve worked with over the years. We are deeply grateful, honored and uplifted by the support and trust our community has invested in Channelkeeper over the past two decades to help us become such a powerful and effective force for clean water.

Channelkeeper will be celebrating our 20^th anniversary throughout 2020, and I invite you to join the party, because we’ll also be celebrating you! Through a series of fun initiatives and events, we will reflect back on our clean water victories over the past two decades, provide opportunities for our community to explore and connect with the waterways we love and work so hard to protect, and honor and appreciate those who have helped us grow and succeed along the way.

For a sneak peek at what’s to come, in the next few weeks we’ll be unveiling a beautiful new website, launching a super fun new community engagement initiative called the Channelkeeper Challenge, and rolling out the first of a series of multi-media profiles recognizing and appreciating twenty Channelkeeper Heroes who have supported our organization and work over the past 20 years.

We’re also thrilled to welcome Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. back as the keynote speaker at our 20th Annual Blue Water Ball on March 14, 2020. Mr. Kennedy was here to officially inaugurate Channelkeeper at our very first Blue Water Ball in 2000, and his vision, dedication and leadership has since propelled the creation of more than 300 other grassroots Waterkeeper organizations on six continents, collectively patrolling and protecting 2.7 million square miles of watersheds and defending people’s fundamental right to clean water across the globe. You will not want to miss this momentous celebration, so get your tickets here today, and stay tuned for other ways to join in the fun of Channelkeeper’s year-long celebration of making waves for two decades!