The top recycling mistakes El Pasoans make every day

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Nine years after the start of a curbside recycling program, city workers say El Pasoans still don’t get it. “Within the last few years, we have seen the contamination rate of non-recyclable items in the blue container dramatically increase,” said Raeann Ortega Recycling, manager of the Environmental Services Department with the city of El Paso. Ortega said people are frequently tossing non-recyclables into their blue bins, which increases costs for labor to sort out at the city’s recycling centers. “Within the last twelve months we spent approximately $750,000 in processing fees,” Ortega said. The most common mistake residents make is putting Styrofoam containers and pizza boxes in the blue bins or taking inappropriate items with their recyclable items to one of four citywide Citizen Collection Sites (CCS).

Trashion show: Recycled trash into fashion

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EL PASO — For the most part fashion design has a reputation for superficiality and a lack of concern for the planet, but this year designers in the technology program at El Paso Community College (EPCC) decided to change that perception with a Trashion Show. “In a way it’s like helping the world and it’s not only about the fashion but about having satisfaction of helping out,” said one of the designers, Zayra Estrada. Students and other collaborators said this is a way to help spread consciousness about recycling. “You can be fashionable without being abusive and use resources wisely,” said Fashion Technology coordinator, Trish Winstead. Five talented students from the Fashion Promotion class displayed their pieces made of recyclable materials at this year’s Trashion Show in commemoration of Earth Day.

Recycling is one bin too far for most El Paso businesses

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EL PASO — For most El Paso residents recycling has become a part of their daily lives. City householders own a blue container used for recycling purposes only, but this differs from commercial recycling thus making the process more complex. “Business recycling is handled by each individual business hires a private hauler that will come and pick up their trash and recycling,” said City of El Paso, Recycling Program manager, Eloisa Portillo. The City of El Paso Environmental Services Department is responsible for residential recycling, but El Paso businesses must make an extra effort in order to have their paper and plastic material recycled. A business must personally call a private hauler to have a special truck pick up their recyclables.

The art of recycling

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Art created from recycled items is now a fast growing and popular niche, but Carlos Egan (“The Country Gentleman”) has been incorporating recycled items into his art for years. Egan’s Rustic Art was most recently featured at the 39th Annual Renaissance Arts Faire in Las Cruces. But, for 27 years Egan has been traveling and selling his work at fairs all over Texas and New Mexico. “I go out into the desert with my daughter and look for wood pieces that have been weathered by the sun and rain. I mostly go where people throw stuff away.

Planet Forward: Emergency on Planet Earth

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EL PASO, Texas — The University of Texas at El Paso is “walking the walk and not just talking the talk.”

A famous quote by Henry David Thoreau states : “Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.”

When it comes to concern about the environment; UTEP’s answer:  build three new multi-million dollar construction projects. UTEP’s ongoing construction projects all have green initiatives, including locations for cyclists to come and relax, take a shower, and place their personal belongings in new lockers. This supports the concept that students should ride their bike to UTEP instead of driving their car. Ed Soltero, UTEP’s director of planning and construction promises, “one day UTEP will eventually be off limits to cars, it will become strictly students.”

Currently, UTEP proposes to be in the vanguard in helping to preserve the environment in the southwest. “UTEP has most certainly been at the forefront of these sustainability issues,” according to Soltero.

Earth Week Bhutanese Green Temple hopes to inspire recycling – Video

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EL PASO — The Green Temple, built by students from the Environmental Advocates, American Students of Civil Engineering, volunteers and Special Events staff for Earth Week, took 400 hours to complete. Forty thousand plastic bottles were collected from UTEP, New Mexico State University and community members over the span of one week. The Bhutanese inspired temple was built with 20,000 of the collected bottles at the Don Haskins Center and transported in four large pieces to the second floor of Union Building East. Ralph Rivera, vice president of the Environmental Advocates, said arrangements are being made for the remaining collected bottles and Green Temple to be recycled at the end of Earth Week. He said he hopes people will begin to purchase reusable water bottles instead of disposable ones.