The UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Stanislaus County have taught adult classes at local libraries since April of 2022. Now, we are excited to present our Vermicomposting Class in June that will be fun for the WHOLE family!
Vermicomposting is the process of using red wiggler worms* to help eat kitchen scraps. Join us for this class to learn interesting facts about these worms, how to make your own “worm hotel,” and which foods the red wiggler worms eat that can help turn your kitchen scraps into compost for your garden!
In addition to presenting information about vermicomposting, you'll be able to “meet” a few live worms and see them in action in a worm bin. Kids of all ages will love "meeting" the worms, so be sure to bring them. We hope you can attend at one of these local Stanislaus County Library locations:
Vermicomposting Classes
Sat, 6/3 at 2:00 p.m. – Empire Library
Tues, 6/6 at 6:00 p.m. – Salida Library
Thurs, 6/8 at 1:00 p.m. – Patterson Library
Sat, 6/10 at 2:00 p.m. – Riverbank Library
Mon, 612 at 6:00 p.m. – Ceres Library
Tues, 6/13 at 6:00 p.m. – Oakdale Library
Mon, 6/26 at 5:30 p.m. – Modesto Library
Wed, 6/28 at 6:00 p.m. – Turlock Library
*earthworms don't like to be disturbed, so they are not used for vermicomposting.
/h3>- Author: Denise H Cuendett
Randy Thomson Master Composter and Madera Master Gardener will host a free class on Composting at Home, Hot & Cold Styles and Worms. Best practices for composting your kitchen and yard organic discards to create a useful soil amendment. Randy Thomson is activel in the Central Valley on the topic of compost. Starting in 2022 SB1383 California Mandatory Recycling Laws. Check your local Waste/Mangement websites for more information.
As a Master Composter and Master Gardener, Randy is spreading the word how we can make a difference in the Central Valley. Presentation at the Madera District Fair and now a composting class held at the Three Sister Garden on the Madera Community college.
Save the date of Saturday, September 24, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. Composting at Home, Hot & Cold Styles and Worms.
Visit UCANR Madera Master Gardener website for more information.
Thank you Randy for spreading the word!
- Author: Deborah Schnur
Ever since Senate Bill 1383 took effect earlier this year, local governments and organizations across California have been scrambling to develop strategies to recycle organic waste. Schools are no exception. As I discussed in my February blog, SB 1383 requires our state to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% and increase edible food recovery by 20% by 2025 (relative to 2014 levels). California schools and universities generate over 560,000 tons of waste per year according to CalRecycle.[1] While implementing programs to reduce and recycle waste, schools are in a unique position to teach youth about a wide variety of environmental topics including resource conservation, composting, and food rescue.
A good way for schools to start developing a waste handling strategy is to conduct a waste audit. The main goal is to characterize the type, quantity, and source of materials being discarded. An audit is often part of a more comprehensive assessment to evaluate school district policies and procedures that affect waste generation. In 2014, CalRecycle performed a waste characterization study using 45 samples from K-12 schools.[2] The study showed that the largest components of the waste stream were organics (50.8%), paper (31.4%), and plastic (12.7%). The organics category included food, plant material, and some textiles.
I recently helped Cassidy Furnari, the Upland School District Farm to School Program Manager, conduct a lunchtime cafeteria waste audit at Upland High School. The Farm to School Program is part of the Nutrition Services Department, which is concerned about food waste and cost. Cassidy and I recruited members of the school garden club, GRO (Grow Recycle Organize), to participate in the audit to empower them to promote change on campus. The students are currently preparing to present their results at an upcoming Board of Education meeting.
The first step we took in planning our waste audit was to write a brief project plan. To keep the project manageable, we decided to perform an audit during a typical 30-minute lunch period. Upland High School has over 3000 students who all eat at the same time. Only seniors are allowed to leave campus during lunch.
To avoid influencing student behavior, we didn't make any major changes to the meal service or trash disposal. Rather than asking students to sort their own waste, we placed distinctive purple liners inside existing trash containers shortly before the lunch period. The week before the audit we counted over 90 trash containers in the areas where students eat lunch.
During the planning process, we informed and consulted with the school administration, cafeteria staff, custodial staff, and parents of the garden club members. We also asked for help from our friends at the Community Composting for Green Spaces Grant Program to tap into their experience with waste audits.
To design our data collection sheets, we considered what questions we wanted to answer. What is the total weight of the waste? How much of the waste is food, paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass? How much can be composted or recycled? How much uneaten cafeteria food can be recovered? By answering these questions and others, we can help the Nutrition Services Department make more sustainable and economical food purchasing and packaging decisions.
After a month of planning, the big day of the waste audit finally arrived on March 9th. Our team consisted of nine people from Upland Farm to School and Community Composting for Green Spaces. Our first tasks were placing purple bags in the trash receptacles and setting up a staging area to sort the waste. Before we knew it, the lunch period had come and gone, and the hard work of collecting the bags and sorting the waste began. Sorting was much messier and more tedious than I had expected, especially since we had over 30 waste categories. The garden club members joined us after school to help count, weigh, and record the items in different waste categories. We eventually finished tallying the results and cleaning up six hours after we started. It was a long day!
What did we learn from our waste audit? Although we're still analyzing the results, we've already answered our initial questions. The total waste generated in a single lunch period was 370 lbs. The two largest types of waste material by weight were food (63%) and paper (19%), and more than 80% of the waste was compostable or recyclable. Students threw away over 200 pieces of uneaten whole fruit and 40 unopened cartons of milk, which potentially could have been recovered. Every question we answer gives rise to new questions and new ways to examine the data. We're already thinking about performing a waste audit at an elementary school to see how the waste profile compares.
I hope this story inspires you to support waste reduction, recycling, and recovery efforts in your local schools. Stay tuned for an update on my journey into school waste auditing in a future blog!
[1] CalRecycle. School Waste Reduction Programs. https://calrecycle.ca.gov/recycle/schools
[2] CalRecycle. School Waste Composition. https://calrecycle.ca.gov/recycle/schools/composition
- Author: Heidi Aufdermaur
Have you ever had a hobby that turned into an obsession? One of my hobbies is gardening of course, as a Master Gardener. Not too long ago, I acquired a chipper/shredder. One of my gardener friends had two and sold one of them to me at a fair price. I have always wanted one, dreaming of all the rich mulch I could make with my own waste.
I was excited to use it for the first time, donned the earplugs and safety glasses and got busy. Of course, I had to first collect the yard waste. I started coveting all the potential material that I thought would be suitable to shred or chip. I collected from my yard first, then one morning on the daily walk with my husband and soon after Christmas, I had a new insight for all the Christmas trees that were being discarded on the streets. I commented to my husband about collecting some of them to chip. To my surprise, I came home one day from running errands and found about 6 Christmas trees piled up in our yard. My heart fluttered with excitement. I was worried that adding too many of the pines would change the pH of my soil so I consulted Ed Perry, our former Environmental Horticulture Advisor for Stanislaus County. He said I could compost and chip away, as I was adding other species to the mix and it would take a lot more pine trees to make any difference in the pH of my soil.
I started seeing all the shrubs and trees in our yard that needed a good trim and piled them up to dry for a while. I also added some spent flowers to the pile. What I learned about shredding flowers is to cut off the seed heads (if I didn't want them to germinate where I spread the final product). I learned that after I had shredded some old marigold plants, spread the mulch in a pathway between my vegetable rows, I soon had marigolds sprouting up all over. I transplanted a few, left a few and pulled the rest, adding them to the new pile before they flowered.
I began to explore the surrounding yards in our neighborhood. Leaves and clippings looked like gold to me. My neighbor was extremely happy to let me rake her lawn of all the beautiful leaves that had fallen. To say the least, I have become somewhat obsessed with this new habit of gardening. I am also pleased that I am not adding all this waste to the green can for a trip to the land fill.
Did you know there is an assembly bill (AB341) that requires communities to divert yard waste from landfills and recycle it? With the rapidly depleting landfill capacity in California, 75% of yard waste is to be recycled. This goal was to be achieved by 2020. This bill requires every commercial business, institution, and apartment building to implement recycling programs.
Even though this bill focuses on businesses and large complexes, it's also good practice for homeowners. Keeping your yard waste on site, adding it to a compost pile or breaking it down by running over small portions with a lawn mower, one can keep this valuable commodity in one's own yard. Some benefits of mulch include reducing water loss to evaporation, moderates soil temperature, reduces weed growth thus making weeds easier to manage and reduces dust in drip-irrigated landscapes.
So, if you become obsessed like me, just think of all the good that happens when collecting your yard waste and keeping it on site. Happy Gardening.
- Author: Cheryl A. Wilen
San Diego County Ag Weights and Measures is holding a FREE Pesticide Container Recycling Event Saturday, February 3rd, 2018 from 8-2 pm. Commercial users only (Growers, Agricultural Pest Control Businesses, Landscapes and Structural Pest Control Businesses, Public Agencies, Golf Courses, Cemeteries etc.).
EDCO Recycling 1371 Grand Avenue San Marcos, CA 92078 Enter off Grand Avenue and follow the signs!
Please Download the flyer for more details about the types and sizes and location information.
Residential containers can be put in home trash cans if empty and rinsed. Residential use pesticides must be taken to your local household hazardous waste facility or a local HHW event.
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