Garden Writers Invited To Del Mar, CA.

**M* A* <m*@tds.net>**

Be sure to take your cameras!
I visited the Del Mar Fairgrounds last fall in order to photograph
this amazing facility and see the worm bins inside the race track
oval. I include the story of the Del Mar's impressive "Zero Waste or
Darn Close" policy in my vermicomposting presentations these days
because it incorporates so many factors that make sense. Nancy
Strauss is the Recycling Coordinator and works with a team that have
arranged for these kinds of activities that have diverted waste going
to landfills by over 90%:

Horse manure gets composted

Straw bedding goes to a mushroom farmer

Corrugated cardboard gets baled and recycled

Pre-processing food waste goes to worm bins inside the oval

Food waste from the fair gets composted along with the manure

Vendors sign a contract to NOT USE STYROFOAM!
They had the garbage disposals in the Satellite Wagering Facility
removed. They ran a pilot test with monthly sampling of the material
going down the drain (Total Suspended Solids and Biological Oxygen
Demand) to determine if their wastewater treatment rates could be
lowered by diverting food waste from sewers to worm bins. Could they
ever! Projected savings for sewage rates alone was to be $454,000
over a 10 year period! Fee structure was changed from restaurants to
shopping malls with anticipated savings of $45,000 per year just for
sewage along because they were keeping food waste out of the water
and putting it either into the compost sites or feeding it to the
worms.
So, what does this have to do with gardening? They use the
vermicompost in the landscaping program, saving on fertilizer use and
costs. Impressive program. Ask about it.
An anecdote. . . I developed information about this program in my
PowerPoint presentations before I visited Del Mar. Nancy had sent me
photos of the worm bins, but no overview shots of the grandstand.
Wanting to show the facility, their website was copyrighted and any
photographs of the grandstand were locked. So a visit to Del Mar was
a must on my West Coast tour last fall. Luckily, the day I went to
Del Mar had no more smoke from the fires and was a gorgeous blue-sky
day with perfect shadows for late afternoon lighting. My picture
postcard shots of the grandstand will eventually be up on my website
in the WormEzine section.

--

Mary Appelhof, Author of "Worms Eat My Garbage"

Flowerfield Enterprises,10332 Shaver Road,Kalamazoo, MI 49024 USA

PLEASE NOTE NEW AREA CODE: PH:269-327-0108 FAX 269-327-7009
"Changing the way the world thinks about garbage"
Subscribe to my WormEzine at: http://www.wormwoman.com or download
archives in PDF format.

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