The Friday Video: It's An El Paso Thing

[Thanks and a hat tip to my old hiking buddy, Tommy Young, for finding this video. If you get elpasonaturally by email, the video won't be embedded. Please go to www.elpasonaturally.blogspot.com to view.]

Glass Pulverizer Is in Operation

Ribbon cutting at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station
Photo by Terry Sunday

The City of El Paso is now officially in the glass recycling business even if it is just a pilot program. Rep. Lily Limón, Environmental Services Director, Ellen Smyth, and other dignitaries were on hand to launch the new recycling program at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station.

The glass pulverizer
Photo by Terry Sunday

All El Pasoans will be able to drop-off their glass beverage bottles and jars at their neighborhood collection stations. (No window panes, automobile windshields, ceramics or glass figurines please.) The bottles will be taken to the Pendale Station where they will be pulverized. The resulting powder or beads may be used as mulch, road bedding, arts and crafts, etc.

Photo by Terry Sunday

Bottles should be separated by color: blue, brown, clear and green.

CDEC Promotes Native Plant Landscapes

Click on image to enlarge.

The Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition (CDEC) will sponsor a community wide meeting on Tuesday evening, February 2 to help promote city wide efforts to promote native plant landscapes in El Paso neighborhoods.   Anyone with an interest in helping the community landscape with water saving native plants that also help lower homeowner utility bills and provide food and shelter for local wildlife, is welcome to attend.   CDEC Chairperson, Dr. Gertrud Konings, said: “The City of El Paso has supported our efforts to promote native plant landscapes with a special exhibit at Cleveland Square and a video on the City’s YouTube channel and on Channel 15.  To reach more people with this important effort we need community wide input.”

The meeting will be held at the Garden Center in Memorial Park, 3105 Grant Avenue, from 6-7:30pm on Tuesday, February 2.  For more information see the “Habitat Certification” page on the CDEC website at chihuahuandesert.org or call 915-845-1476.

El Paso Don't Get Shocked Rally

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Three Important City Council Items Tomorrow

On tomorrow's City Council agenda there are three very important items that should concern the "green" community:

First and foremost - Discussion and action on a resolution supporting the designation of Castner Range as a National Monument. You can see the resolution HERE. It is Item 21.2 on the agenda.

Next - Presentation on 2016 Glass Recycling Pilot Program. It is Item 21.3. Read more about the pilot program HERE. 

Finally and very importantly - Discussion and action on a Resolution establishing a Regional Renewable Energy Advisory Council for the purpose of advising the City of El Paso on matters related to renewable energy strategy and industry development. Item 28.1. You can view the summary, resolution and presentation HERE. The one defect in the proposed composition of the Council is the inclusion of "a single technical advisor from the local electric utility as a non-voting member." Given the fact that the El Paso Electric Company wants to destroy the solar rooftop industry in El Paso, they should have no part in a Regional Renewable Energy Advisory Council. Elpasopolitically comments further.

Glass Recycling Begins This Wednesday

Click on image to enlarge.

Glass recycling in El Paso begins on Wednesday. The ribbon-cutting event begins at 10 AM at the Pendale Citizen Collection Station, 1034 Pendale in east El Paso. (MAP) 

City Council will view a presentation about the pulverizer at its regular meeting tomorrow morning. You can see that presentation HERE.

The good news is that you can take your glass to any of the citizen collection stations in El Paso. 

Laurence Gibson, Chair of the El Paso Group Rio Grande Chapter Sierra Club tells us: "El Paso's Environmental Services Department is now collecting glass at all five Citizen Collection Stations for processing into pulverized glass at the Pendale Road Station. All we have to do is take our clean glass containers to a Citizen Collection Station, separate by color, and we're done. If you want free mulch from glass, you may pick that up at 1034 Pendale Road. This is a hot commodity at the Mesilla Valley Landfill, where the bins are almost always empty."

Glassware just needs to be clean and dry. The pulverizer removes labels.

Remember glass recycling is just a pilot program. How can we help make it permanent? Laurence Gibson offers these suggestions:

• Talk about it with everyone.
• Offer to take your neighbors' glass to a Citizen Collection Station.
• Watch for Environmental Services' how-to handouts. 
• Attend the Jan. 27 Ribbon Cutting (10 a.m. at 1034 Pendale).
• Tell your City Council Rep you appreciate glass recycling and want a pulverizer for your CCS.
• Thank District 7 (Eastside) Rep. Lily Limón for initiating the Pilot Program 
• Enjoy and take pride in a cleaner El Paso

Rep. Lily Limón will have two community meetings on Wednesday. They will be regular district meetings. However Romie Ruiz, the Partnerships & Public Programs Coordinator for the City of El Paso, will offer a special presentation on the glass pilot project at both. (1st Meeting – 7:30 AM – Denny’s – I-10 at Lomaland; 2nd Meeting – 5:30 PM – Carolina Rec Center – 563 N. Carolina Drive)

The Friday Video: Robert Newman "The Trailblazer"

Robert Newman is a legend. If you are a hiker, mountain biker, conservationist or just a lover of the Franklin Mountains, you know this man. Mountain Biker and publisher of GeoBetty, Don Baumgardt wrote on Facebook that Newman is "the man who single-handedly built some of the best bike trails in El Paso (and therefore, some of the best trails in all of Texas.) What the world needs now is more Robert Newmans. We don't have to all build trails, but we can do something we love and for the benefit of others."

[If you get elpasonaturally by email, the video won't be embedded. Go to www.elpasonaturally.blogspot.com to view. Thank you.]