By Daily Press staff
City Hall’s environmental programs division in February completed its outreach campaign targeted at getting residents to recycle their used motor oil. The campaign resulted in an increase of 60 percent in the amount of oil collected.
“This means that over 320 gallons of used oil were properly disposed of instead of illegally dumped in the trash or on the streets, which will go a long way to helping to keep our community safe and clean,” said James Velez-Conway, who works at City Hall.
City officials said they have received favorable feedback from the community for its used oil recycling campaign. “Dump Used Oil and We All Get Soaked” posters and tip cards, which show a little girl stepping into a pan filled with oil, have been distributed throughout eastern Santa Monica.
That segment of the community was targeted because it was found to be underserved in environmental education and to have a low participation rate at City Hall’s household hazardous waste collection center.
City Hall conducted extensive surveys to collect information on residents motivations were for recycling and what barriers existed preventing residents from proper disposal.
City Hall partnered with more than 300 businesses and outreached to more than 17,000 residences with the used oil recycling message during the campaign, officials said.
Partnerships were also formed with elementary schools, and a local high school to provide environmental education to students and residents.
The program was funded by a grant from the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). The goal of the grant was to conduct used oil and oil filter recycling outreach in the Pico neighborhood area.
For more information go to www.smepd.org or call James Conway at (310) 458- 8916, ext. 2. Church has something to sing about
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 6, 2005. Read the original PDF.