CARLSBAD/OCEANSIDE, April 14, 2006 - For 36 years, people all around the world have celebrated Earth Day each April 22. What started as a grassroots environmental recognition program has in that time evolved into a worldwide campaign to protect our planet.

“We at Waste Management work 365 days a year all throughout North America to protect our planet by implementing waste-to-energy projects, creating recycling programs and using alternative fuel trucks, and we hope that the annual Earth Day celebration might serve as a catalyst for others to start thinking about conservation, recycling and reuse,” said Ken Ryan, district manager of Coast Waste Management in Carlsbad and Waste Management of North County in Oceanside. “We take our company theme line ‘Think Green’ very seriously – thinking green means we have employees who are experts in not only safely disposing of waste, but also reducing it, recycling it and converting it for alternative use.”

Waste Management’s comprehensive services provide not only for the collection, transfer and disposal of the 4.5 pounds of waste the average American produces each day, but also include recycling and resource recovery.

“We are North America’s largest recycler,” said Ryan. “Our almost 100 renewable energy projects – capturing landfill gas and converting solid waste to energy – produce the equivalent of enough electricity to power more than 800,000 homes and save the equivalent of about eight million barrels of oil each year.”

In North San Diego County, Waste Management has a number of services to help customers make “every day Earth Day:”

• We accept household batteries – which cannot be discarded in the trash under the state’s recent Universal Waste Ban – at our three recycling centers in North County. People may drop off their batteries Tuesday-Saturday, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at one of these three locations: 5960 El Camino Real, Carlsbad; 2265 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar; 2880 Industry St., Oceanside.
• We also accept e-waste, such as computers, monitors and TVs, at these three sites Tuesday-Saturday, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• We recently announced an expanded mixed paper recycling program in Carlsbad, which enables residential customer of Waste Management to recycle all types of paper goods, including magazines, phone books, computer paper, junk mail, paper bags and egg cartons along with newspapers and ad inserts, in their blue recycling crates. We also offer these curbside mixed paper recycling options in Del Mar, Oceanside, Solana Beach and our other county service areas in the region, along with the separate recycling of aluminum, glass and plastic, as well as greenwaste.
• For those who don’t participate in curbside recycling, we provide cash in exchange for recyclables with California Redemption Value (CRV) at our three recycling centers in Carlsbad, Del Mar and Oceanside.

These recycling and recovery efforts go a long way to reducing the waste entering our landfills nationwide – and it’s not simply the traditional view of recycling, meaning turning in bottles and cans for processing and reuse, that helps achieve this goal.

Among the waste generated by Americans annually is 1.6 million tons of “household hazardous waste” (HHW), which includes paints, cleaners, stains and varnishes, car batteries, motor oil and pesticides. Not only do these items need to be properly handled to eliminate the health risks these materials can pose to people and the environment, but this also helps to ensure that whatever elements can be recycled from HHW are in fact recycled.

One way to reduce HHW is to use non-hazardous or less hazardous products. You can do this by reducing the amount of products you purchase that have hazardous components or using only the amount you need. Share leftover materials with your neighbors, businesses or community organizations, or give them to a HHW program. For example, excess pesticide can be offered to a greenhouse, garden center or community garden, and theater groups can always use surplus paint.

Recycling is an economical and environmentally sound way to handle some types of HHW, such as used car batteries and oil. Auto parts stores and service stations frequently accept used batteries, and 80 percent of these batteries are currently recycled. Also, many service stations collect used oil as a service to their customers. Tires can also be recycled into a number of products, ranging from artificial reefs to playground equipment to roofing, or used for crash barriers or erosion control.

“These are just a couple of ways residents of North County can practice Earth Day every day and contribute to a greener planet,” said Ryan. “At Waste Management, green is more than just the color of our trucks and containers. It is a daily reminder to our more than 50,000 employees across North America of the important role we all play as stewards of the environment. By working together and staying involved, we've been able to make a positive difference in neighborhoods in North County and all across North America.”

For more information on Earth Day, visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at http://www.epa.gov/earthday/index.htm.

Waste Management, Inc. is the leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in North America. For more information about recycling, log onto www.wm.com.

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