VC Star January 27, 2024 By David Goldstein The electronic gifts you gave in December may have drained batteries by now. Some electronics come with low-quality, single-use batteries, ensuring a toy or device works long enough to make it unreturnable to a store. Perfectly good toys end up in thrift stores or garbage carts because…
December 25, 2023 VC Star ‘Twas the week after Christmas and all through the County, treecycling was popular; some got back a mulch bounty. Cut trees were placed in curbside carts with great care, in hopes the recycling truck soon would be there. Even though Christmas tree recycling is an annual ritual, differing rules, dates…
December 16, 2023 VC Star The 28th United Nations Conference of Parties — COP28 — bringing together the 197 countries that signed a 1992 agreement on climate change wrapped up in Dubai last week. They came to unanimous consensus on a tentative world agreement related to transition away from fossil fuels. However, the Alliance of…
Ventura County Public Works Agency Awarded Project of the Year Honorable Mention (VENTURA COUNTY, Calif.) – December 7, 2023 – The Santa Barbara-Ventura Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) announced on December 7, 2023, that Ventura County Public Works Agency (VCPWA) has received an honorable mention for the 2022-2023 Project of the Year.…
November 25, 2023 VC Star Last year, during the week after Thanksgiving, Rosa Cruz, manager of Coastal Byproducts in Oxnard, received an unusual phone call from a homeowner in Montecito. “Can you please come collect cooking oil from my house?” the caller asked. Cruz explained the minimum requirements of her company, saying, “Drop-off here is…
November 18, 2023 Last week, I had the honor of making a lunchtime presentation to the lovely ladies of the Somis Thursday Club. I asked them, “How do you know whether something is recyclable?” The first response was, “Three arrows in a triangle! …Right?” For more than 100 years, their social club and service club…
November 11, 2023 VC Star The United States Flag Code is a federal law, but compliance depends on goodwill. Within our country’s general population, inconsistency is common. Many people seem to take great offense when someone refuses to honor the code’s rules for standing in the presence of the flag during the playing of the…
November 5, 2023 VC Star You probably know you can place food scraps in your organics curbside cart, but do you know what types of organics belong in the garbage cart? The organics cart at many homes is still labeled “yard waste only,” even though lumber has always been allowed and food scraps are now…
October 21, 2023 VC Star Goodwill stores in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties have a new tool on their counters, and it is helping customers envision great Halloween costumes. It’s called the “Look Book,” with suggestions for pairing commonly available thrift store items with seasonally available accessories. Stores in other areas have used similar books…
October 14, 2023 VC Star Three barriers stood between wasted food and the hungry residents of a shelter on Harvard Street in Santa Paula. “Time, temperature and moisture are the enemies of food recovery,” said Kay Wilson-Bolton, volunteer director of Spirit of Santa Paula, the nonprofit administering the shelter. To feed the hungry, not landfills,…