South Tahoe Refuse and Recycling has long recognized the importance of landfill diversion, by facilitating the separation and collection of green waste, food waste, and other recycling for post-consumer processing, in the City of South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado, and Douglas Counties.

Areas, such as ours, with a community heavily dependent on tourism, compel a greater number of single use items under normal circumstances. Our area has attracted many visitors/new residents during the COVID pandemic. This has resulted in a massive increase in the tonnage of disposable waste, much of which might be recycled, or reduced, by separating clean recycling and thinking about the waste hierarchy.

The need to mitigate animal access to household garbage is a critical component of  clean recycling. This speaks to the importance of maintaining access mitigation by wildlife and still conscientiously sharing the same space. Once an animal has accessed garbage, it must be landfilled, eliminating the ability to divert it from the landfill and the chance for post-consumer recycling.

The world has changed, but not the need to think about what impact our behaviors have in the short term, as well as long term impacts garbage management has on sustainability.

It can be challenging but there are things we can still do to work toward maintaining equitable conditions that support a healthy balance between the special needs of people during this pandemic, the environment, and the wildlife that share our home.

• Create defensible space around your home by cleaning up yard waste. Ditch the plastic bag and can your yard waste for curbside pick-up. Take advantage of STR’s voucher program by bringing in your clean green waste(no bags) for no charge.
• Choose re-usable masks whenever possible. Estimates are that we are using about 129 billion disposable face masks worldwide every month. They are not recyclable.
• Drink Award Winning Tahoe Tap – Ditch the plastic bottle habit.
• Opt for No-Plastic items
• Reduce the use of single use anything. No need to use plastic utensils or bags for take-out!  This saves the restaurants money and supports the reduction of single use items. Most vacation homes have complete kitchen accessories. Take advantage of the ability to reduce by reusing plates, utensils, cups, etc…
• Re-start your recycle habit. Blue bag your clean: paper, plastic, cans, bottles. Even some take out items can be salvaged for recycling. For example, pizza boxes are usually lined. Remove the liner and the clean boxes are good to go!
• Don’t litter. Just don’t. Leave No Trace!
• If a garbage can or dumpster is full, or locked, take your garbage with you. All residences have garbage service. Public areas are at full capacity. Prepare to have a way to store garbage until you get home, or bring it to the transfer station. It is easy and cheap!
• Use bear boxes correctly. Animal access of household garbage in bear boxes is 100% operator error. All garbage must be contained in cans with lids, even in bear boxes. If you exceed the volume, contact your management company, or bring it to the transfer station.

There is no way to deny there will be a rise in the consumption of single use plastics and disposable products. However, Covid-19 is a temporary situation.  At some point, we will have to face the effects of how we manage non-biodegradable waste filling our communities, landfills, and waterways. Even small efforts can have big impact.

Check out our Facebook, or southtahoerefuse.com, for more information, or call us at (530) 541-5105.  We are here to help!

The City of South Lake Tahoe Partners with South Tahoe Refuse & Recycling to Fight Trash in Tahoe

The City of South Lake Tahoe is partnering with South Tahoe Refuse, STR, to fight back against the growing problem of trash on public beaches, parks, and in other public areas. Click to learn more. https://ow.ly/ch8a50AZVlo