CVSan Holds Fourth Annual Zero Waste Week for the Community

To help Castro Valley Sanitary District (CVSan) residents learn more about how to select their path to Zero Waste, CVSan presented its fourth annual Zero Waste Week to the Castro Valley community from Wednesday, February 6th to Saturday, February 9th.

CVSan kicked off Zero Waste Week by hosting its second Community Tree Fruit Gleaning event, which was a huge success! A total of 34 members of the community gleaned over 1,895 pounds of oranges, tangerines, grapefruit, and lemons for the CV Food Pantry at Faith Lutheran and the Food Pantry at Greek Orthodox.

Thursday had the most well-attended event of the week, CVSan’s STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Math) Recycled Art and Toys workshop where over 50 students and family members participated in the fun hands-on event at the Castro Valley Library. Using materials such as cardboard, bottle caps, fruit netting, polystyrene, and cell phone cases, students crafted amazing creations.

On Friday, 28 community members participated in another hands-on experience making their own personal care items. Zero Waste Lifestyle Blogger Kathryn Kellogg of GoingZeroWaste.com led the event, where attendees made and took home their own all-natural lip balm, tooth powder, cleaning spray, and deodorant!

To cap the week off, CVSan hosted a Fixit Clinic and Clothing Swap ‘N Sew at the Castro Valley Library. There were 18 volunteer coaches on-hand, including several students from the Dougherty Valley High School Engineering Club, to help over 20 community members learn how to fix their personal goods in need of repair. More than 70% of the items were repaired, including items such as a stand mixer, an electric fryer, a personal heater, a cell phone, and a broken jacket zipper, resulting in approximately 77.6 lbs. of potential waste being diverted from disposal. A special thank you to the Fixit Coaches: Peter, Joe, Pat, Bill, Ken, Bob, Sarah, Tarun, Kyle, Srivatsan, Yankang, Ajitesh, Mithran, Brian, Rohan, Sreeram, Kent, and Charles for donating their time!

For more information on CVSan’s Zero Waste Week, visit www.cvsan.org/ZeroWaste or for personal tips, please visit: www.selectmypath.org.