Plant
trimmings reused in on-campus gardening
Recycle • Ruben
Bretado, a landscape maintenance worker,
unloads mulch off his truck, part of
his daily routes to green waste drop-off
sites. Bretado starts his day at 5 a.m.
Luis Testa / Online Forty-Niner
By Luis Testa
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Making one of his many daily routes to the green waste drop-off site, landscape
maintenance worker Ruben Bretado is constantly on the move, transferring one
of the many truck loads of tree trimmings, branches and leaves that will be
diverted and reused in other parts of the Cal State Long Beach campus.
“
It’s a daily process, which starts as early as 5 o’clock in the
morning,” Bretado said as he closed the back of his truck, getting ready
to go pick up another load.
Chipped-up tree trimmings are being used across campus as mulch beds with the
intention of recycling waste.
This is one way Waste Management is keeping the mulch material on campus, Integrated
Waste Manager Jon Root said.
“
A lot of time when folks think about recycling, they think of cans and bottles
and papers,” Root said, “but the reality is that there are many
other things that we are generating. Landscape debris is certainly one of those
high diverting materials.”
Due to state law A.B.75, state facilities are required to reduce the amount
of solid waste entering the landfills by recycling or diverting integrated
waste. In 2004, these facilities, including Cal State Long Beach, were required
to reduce waste by 50 percent, said Associate Vice President of Physical Planning & Facilities
Management Scott R. Charmack.
Because CSULB is a heavily landscaped campus, containing 321 developed acres,
the amount of green waste becomes a large factor in the amount of waste produced.
Each year the facilities divert around 400 tons of debris and waste from the
maintenance of the landscape making green waste one of the largest weight materials
being diverted by the campus, according to Root.
CSULB Landscaping Services is also putting its effort in diverting waste by
the reuse of grass clippings, which are included with the tons of green waste
being diverted through a process called “grasscycling.” Lawnmowers
cut the grass, leaving grass clippings uncollected on the lawns, which releases
nutrients into the soil making grass look good and grow healthy, said Bryan
McKinnon, manager of Grounds & Landscaping Services.
Students who are aware of the campus recycling efforts are proud to be part
of the campus’ efforts to be environmentally friendly.
“
It feels good to know that I’m going to a campus that is putting good
efforts to recycle,” said junior sociology major Maria Arias.
Green waste, scrap wood, metal, cardboard and oil not reused are then sent
out to a nearby facility which puts the materials to other uses, such as fuel
for power plants, or alternate cover at landfills and compost, Root said.
“
In the past [much] of this stuff would of ended up in the trash, but now we
have a program to divert that,” Root said. “My passion is keeping
[as much] of this stuff out of the trash that we can.”
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