Title
Recognition of 2018 Recycler of the Year
Body
The Recycler of the Year Awards are sponsored by the Los Alamos County Environmental Services Division and the Environmental Sustainability Board. The Recycler of the Year Award is a great avenue to promote recycling in the business and education community. To become eligible, a business or educational institute is nominated by a member of the community for contributing to recycling and waste reduction. The nominees are required to answer a questionnaire about how their organization contributes to recycling and waste reduction. This information is posted to an online voting system and the voting process is open to the general public.
Seven nominations were received for the 2018 Recycler of the Year Award. There were two categories this year, Educational Institutions and Business/Non-Profit. Educational Institution nominees were Chamisa Elementary School, Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), and the University of New Mexico Los Alamos Branch (UNM-LA). Business/Non-Profit nominees were Rick’s FickzitPlease, Cortex & Co Salon, Boomerang Consignment, and Los Alamos Lock & Key. The voting process was conducted via an online survey. The winners of the 2018 Recycler of the Year Award are Chamisa Elementary School for Educational Institution and Cortex & Co Salon for Business/Non-Profit.
The 2018 Educational Institute winner is Chamisa Elementary School. They implemented a variety of educational activities to teach students the importance of green efforts. They collaborated with the hot lunch vendor, Chartwells, to swap disposable trays for reusable trays and utensils. The school provides recycle bins for every class room. The Chamisa Green Team created a video that airs at the Reel Deal Movie Theatre to promote Zero Waste lunch and teaches how to reduce the amount of waste created when packing a lunch. They also have waste free lunch week at school. Children can earn prizes that support waste-free lunches. This effort also helps educate the parents who pack the lunches. Chamisa Elementary school also has a garden where the students are learning about how to produce organic fruits and vegetables.
The 2018 Business/Nonprofit winner is Cortex & Co. Salon. The salon is Green Circle Salon certified. The salon is taking steps to reduce waste and to turn some of the most common salon garbage scraps into oil booms, recycled materials, dog beds and even steam power. They collect scraps of hair from every haircut, as well as have bins for foils from highlights and hair color that would typically go down the drain and into our water supply. Hair clippings are processed into oil booms that absorb oil or other environmental toxins, they also serve as filler for shelter pet beds, and can be used to reduce crumbling in concrete mixtures. As for the left over hair color, they begin the process of placing the mixture into a centrifuge that separates the water from the coloring chemicals so that the water can be safely put back in the ground. Aluminum from highlighting foils is also rendered reusable by melting it down, which causes the chemicals on it to rise to the surface as ash. Wax strips and other disposable items from waxing is converted to steam to help power Green Circle’s factory. The salon also offers clients, reusable K cups, reusable straws for and a soda stream to negate having a lot of aluminum waste. The salon is estimates to be 98% waste free. The salon charges a $1 eco fee to every ticket that helps pay for the program. Most recently the salon won a Instagram contest from the product line Kevin Murphy where they won a water efficient shower head. The salon purchased a second one for the other hair washing bowl. These heads reduce water & energy usage by up to 65%.