ZERO WASTE: FUN WITH REPURPOSING

FIRST PLACE: Elena Driskill Elena made this darling and very functional, reusable grocery bag out of Capri-Sun drink bags. She sewed each bag together quilt-style, then, she fin- ished the interior with lime green duct tape. The judges thought this was a great use of materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. PHOTO BY DIANNE ERSKINE-HELLRIGEL

The Community Hiking Club of Santa Clarita issued an Earth Day challenge like no other. They asked the community of Santa Clarita and surrounding areas to collect trash from trails, roadsides, or even out of their own trash cans and garages. Then, they were asked to make something useful out of their reclaimed treasure, and enter it in the Community Hiking Club's Earth Day contest.

Dozens of citizens responded, making things such as a chain mail dress out of soda pop tops, garden stepping stones using glass collected from micro-trash clean ups, a reusable shopping bag made from recycled juice bags, garden flower sculptures from heavy plastic and bullet casings, and a toy robot made from reclaimed cardboard, decorative paper and shotgun shells! The creativity was astounding, and everyone ended up being a winner! This turned out to be a great activity for families, groups and individuals as well.

People learned about land stewardship, the effects of litter on our eco-systems, how to recycle, reusing materials to make something useful, and they all felt great about cleaning up their city! Everyone did a great job and had fun in the process.

Kids learned for the first time about things that can be recycled: metal, plastic, plastic bags, glass, wood, cork, all paper products including mail and newspaper, computers (and computer parts), all hazardous waste, foamed polystyrene, car batteries, rubber, yard waste, kitchen scraps, textiles and more.

Kids learned to think before they absent-mindedly tossed their trash. Nearly everyone is aware of recycling bottles and cans, but there is so much more work to be done in recycling! We need to reduce the amount of trash that goes into our land fills. Before you throw anything away, ask yourself if it could be recycled. Grass and garden clippings are great starters for a mulch pile in your own yard. And this is something that is very easy to do and beneficial for your own garden. Some food scraps can be added to the garden clippings as well.

The Community Hiking Club applauds all of the entrants in this first annual event, and is looking forward to next year’s entries! Kudos to all who entered, judged, donated prizes, and those who collected trash to make our city a little cleaner!

SECOND PLACE: Conner Wileman: Conner created flower yard sculptures using an orange trash bag, hubcaps, boxes, old garden stakes, shell casings, and discarded silk flowers. PHOTO BY DIANNE ERSKINE-HELLRIGEL