A critical component of OCWR’s mission is “to protect the environment.” This takes many forms, from mitigating landfill impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods to helping threatened and endangered species grow and protecting archeological and paleontological resources. The habitat areas at Prima Deshecha and Frank R. Bowerman are prime examples of environmental stewardship and protection.

Environmental benefits of the habitat include:

Translocation project at Prima for 450 Thread-leaved brodiaea (Brodiaea filifolia), a state-endangered and federally-threatened flowering plant species, successfully met final performance standards and was approved by regulatory agencies in 2020.

In April, OC Waste & Recycling (OCWR) and Discovery Cube Orange County (DCOC) teamed up to celebrate Earth Month by creating resources for the community to participate from the comfort of their own homes. Since COVID-19 prevented in-person educational engagement activities, we transitioned many of OCWR’s events and public outreach efforts to virtual settings. To engage the public for Earth Month, OCWR worked with the Cube to develop a family-friendly booklet of activities that can be done while staying safe at home.

2020 was the year of change, adaptability, resilience, innovation, strength and much more. The year may have been completely upside down from what we could have envisioned, but the OCWR team is agile and learned day-by-day what living through a pandemic means.

“I believe every one of us at OCWR can agree that the COVID-19 outbreak is unprecedented and has affected our lives in ways we could not have anticipated – at work and at home,” said OCWR Director Tom Koutroulis.

The combination of spring’s arrival and the community beginning to open up a little with eased COVID restrictions may inspire you to do some spring cleaning. The County’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection Centers (HHWCCs) have remained open through COVID and continue to accept household hazardous waste, including such products and materials paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides that contain potentially hazardous ingredients, as well as e-waste, like batteries, computers, old phones and TVs and more. . .

Conveniently located in four locations around Orange County, this service is FREE to all OC residents. For a fact sheet on the HHWs and what is accepted, please click here.

OCWR offers many tools and resources to help you manage your household waste, especially deciding what is recyclable. Visit these sites for information:

 OC Recycle Guide

Recycling 101 with OCWR Team

OC Waste and Recycling Learn Page 

We all look forward to the little time in the afternoon when we can find a quiet spot, sit down, and enjoy our lunch free from the distractions of the typical working day. Although life does move fast for us, unfortunately the choices we make for lunch typically follow the same hectic pace. As we grow older, what we have for our afternoon meal seems to be an afterthought rather than a deliberate choice made the night before.

While convenience has given us unlimited choices, National Pack Your Lunch Day is a throwback to the simpler time when we could not wait to unveil the contents inside our lunch box. It encourages folks to use fresh ingredients from their kitchen to pack a lunch that is healthy and nutritious-and if done correctly, you will have also had a zero-waste lunch hour.

Lunchtime arguably is one of the most wasteful meals throughout the day. The typical lunch-on-the-go consists of single-use packaging and disposable utensils which add unnecessary tonnage to the waste stream; eventually finding its way into our landfills.

By using reusable containers such as plastic or glass to pack your lunch, you are doing your part in contributing to extending the life of an OC Landfill.

Be a kid again, celebrate Pack Your Lunch Day!

With an attempt to bolster California’s dwindling recycle program, the state’s recycling commission recently offered 19 policy recommendations which would encourage Californians to become better educated with recycling, while aiming to reach the goal of consistently streamlining unwanted waste out of landfills.

Going as far back as 1989, California legislation has continually sought to reduce the amount of waste generated at the landfills through a series of bills. The goal was to reduce tonnage by 75% in 2020. In 2019, the state’s recovery rate was at 37%.

Facing such hurdles over the years such as contamination in the recycling stream, public confusion over what can and cannot be recycled, and the lack of a retail market for certain items, California state legislature currently seeks to establish a system-wide approach to recycling.

Comprising of representatives from large and small city governments from across the state, the 17-member commission is actively addressing some important issues within the recycling framework. Key recommendations made were addressing landfill fires caused by improper battery disposal, enacting extended producer responsibility (EPR), and finding ways to disincentivize or ban the sale of items that cannot be recycled or safely composted.   

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Staying ahead of the curve and taking on a more pro-active approach at the local level, OC Waste & Recycling has adopted the philosophy of pivoting strictly from simply a waste disposal entity, to a resource recovery model of disposal. Some exciting updates we are happy to report include the completion of 2 new compost facilities located in Irvine and San Juan Capistrano, with mattress recovery and metals recycling located at all 3 active sites.

At OC Waste and Recycling, we constantly strive to maintain the vision of safely managing waste, recycling resources, while protecting the environment for Orange County residents and businesses.

Please visit OC Landfills for more information or refer to our OC Recycle Guide for questions regarding recycling.

IntraOCWR is a hub of links to many different OCWR resources, from directions on how to properly complete your time sheet to lists of sites, sections and OCWR news.

Random fact: Did you know that Americans roughly use 500 million disposal straws each day? Additionally, plastic straws are one of the top items found during litter clean-ups. 

Seeking to cut down on the amount of straws from entering our oceans, The Coral Keepers designated the fourth Friday in February as National Skip the Straw Day. We all know the impacts that plastic straws have on birds, fish and other sea life, but did you know that the chemicals in plastics also interfere with their reproductive systems?   

Some simple ways you can observe National Skip the Straw Day include: 

• Bamboo or paper straws-they are reusable and biodegradable  

• Volunteer to help clean up your local beaches, parks or neighborhoods 

• If handed a straw with your beverage, simply say, “No thanks.”  

First started in 2017 by the Coral Keepers, who are students at Whitehall Middle School in Michigan, wished to encourage Americans to give up the straw habit and help spread awareness about the damaging effects of disposable plastics. 

For more information, please visit OC Landfills.  

Adapting to ever changing times, TerraCycle and Anheuser-Busch have partnered together to promote the recycling of personal protective equipment or PPE as it is commonly known.

In 2020, Johns Hopkins University estimated that 45 million masks were worn each day as a result from COVID 19. Unfortunately, our very own streets, parks, and beaches throughout OC have seen in increase in used PPE. Seeing this as a call to action, TerraCycle and Brewers Collective, who handles the craft-beer business unit of Anheuser, decided to do something about it.

Located throughout 17 craft breweries in the U.S., TerraCycle has installed Zero Waste Boxes specially designed for single-use mask and gloves. Once the Zero Waste Boxes are filled, the collected PPE will be cleaned, melted, and processed into a raw material that can be used to make products such as composite decking, outdoor furniture, and reusable shipping pallets. For a listing of craft breweries that have a drop off box, click here.  

Although OC Waste and Recycling advocate the practice of wearing a facial mask, which can be washed and worn multiple times, we also realize some may wish to wear single-use masks.

Once boxes are filled, the collected PPE will be cleaned, melted, and processed into a raw material that can be used to make products such as composite decking, outdoor furniture, and reusable shipping pallets. For a listing of craft breweries that have a drop off box, click here. 

For other information regarding recycling, check out the OC Recycle Guide here.