Los Poblanos Lavender Festival

Make arrangements to attend this year's Lavender Festival at Los Poblanos Organic Farm. More information at

http://www.lospoblanos.com/lavender_farm/-/lavenderfestival/#

This year, Ski has been working really hard to organize foodwaste collection at the festival. Special events pose specific hurdles when it comes to organic waste collection. The general public is notoriously unreliable at separating organics from non-organics. This year, as I understand it, there will be a slew of volunteers to stand by the collection carts to help festival attendees properly sort all recyclables, not just the organics.

So when you go, thank the volunteers and pay special attention to the green carts marked "Organics Only" and know that you are helping us reduce local greenhouse gases.

Not to be outdone, Soilutions' owners Jim and Karen Brooks will be offering a composting workshop for the event. If you've never seen them speak, you will be in for a treat; be prepared to leave energized about your home compost.

Recycling in New Mexico

It's difficult being in the recycling business in New Mexico. We often feel 30 years behind everyone else. We hear of $70-150 landfill tip fees on the coasts; ours is $3.85/cubic yard residential. California has goals to reduce waste going to landfills by %75 by 2010 but we as a state have a 12% recycling rate. We read of innovative uses for carpet, tires, glass in other parts of the country while it seems the only use in New Mexico for these types of materials is to line the sides of roads and ditches. There IS a lot of local enthusiasm for the "green movement", for recycling, etc. just not a lot of will shown by our lawmakers.

However, in the latest issue of BioCycle, there is an article about a yard waste recycling and composting facility in Kansas City, Missouri. I have roots in KC going back all of my 42 years and then some. One thing that always startled me on visits to the area was a skepticism toward recycling. I have a cousin who actually asked me "why should I recycle." When an Uncle from the area heard I was in this business, he turned me on to Missouri Organic Recycling (MOR); his friend started it years ago with his dad, or some such. Last time I was out there, I dragged my parents out to their (MOR) facility. I might just be the only person who visits dumps on their vacation. Anyway, I haven't felt so at home. With the exception of standing water, the facility looks very similar to ours.

Now back to the article in BioCyle. On the cover is a picture of food waste that looks very similar to large loads of food waste we get here on a regular basis. When I opened the magazine to the article, sure enough, MOR was the featured facility. Change the name from MOR to Soilutions, and ignore all the stuff about the state and all sorts of agencies throwing money at them from both sides to get the food waste collection program running,the article could be about Soilutions. They have the same challenges, the same goals, the same successes. MOR is just 10 years ahead of Soilutions.
So it gives me hope to see that we at Soilutions are developing innovative programs that, while they may not be avant-garde in relation to the rest of the world, they are on the right track to be on a par with the heavy hitting composters of the country.