Blog
A space for learning.
Adams Elementary School Hosts Coin Drive to support CEC’s critical work
This spring, students from Santa Barbara’s Adams Elementary School raised over $100 for the Community Environmental Council (CEC) through their spring coin drive, using the opportunity to raise awareness about environmental issues like single use plastics and renewable energy.
Climate and Economics – Moving Toward a Circular Model to Reduce Waste
Get inspired by the circular economy model and hear from leaders of local companies who are implementing its best practices. Learn how they are growing businesses while reducing impact and find out how you can become a part of this global movement.
WIN: AB1276 passes to help eliminate single-use plastics from take-out and delivery orders #SkipTheStuff
Thank you for helping pass AB1276! We now have a policy in place that requires that restaurants and online food delivery platforms list the accessories they provide so that customers can choose only what they need. This will help eliminate millions of tons of single-use foodware from entering the waste stream. Local jurisdictions are creating their own implementation strategies and CEC is working with the City of Goleta in the hopes that they will include an EPS (Styrofoam) ban in their plan.
Reverse. Repair. Protect. CEC’s Bold Climate Action Plan
The White House has officially declared we are in a climate emergency. It’s time to lean into local solutions like never before – and that means unrelenting, focused, inclusive, and courageous climate action on the Central Coast.
CEC has outlined an ambitious plan for how our community can meet this urgent moment and go all in together on halting the climate crisis – rapidly and equitably – through three major efforts:
Reverse: Push for ambitious, equitable zero emissions and zero waste goals for the energy, transportation, food, and agriculture sectors
Repair: Tap into the power of nature to draw down excess carbon from the atmosphere and repair the disrupted carbon cycle
Protect: Safeguard the health of our general public and vulnerable populations from the impacts of climate change already underway
Eating, Drinking, and Breathing Plastic
Explore how CEC and partner Santa Barbara Channelkeeper have been working for over a decade to reduce the Central Coast’s dependence on single-use plastic. This event focused on the connection between our health and plastic at a time when the industry is using the pandemic crisis to roll back regulations on plastic bags and other packaging.
Circular Economy 101: Closing the Life Cycle Loop
Join us for an introduction to a new model – the circular economy – that requires producers to take responsibility, save energy, design waste out of the system, and create a market for re-use.
LOSS: SB 54 and AB 1080 fail to pass California legislature
CEC and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper are sad to share that the landmark California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act (SB 54 and AB 1080) failed to pass the California legislature.
Getting Real About Plastic and Recycling
Learn about updates to the Ablitt’s film plastic program and review the dos and don’ts for Santa Barbara’s blue recycling bins with waste management experts from the City of Santa Barbara and MarBorg.
Creating a Shock-Proof Local Food System
Over the last few months, we’ve witnessed in real time how shocks to the globalized food system impact one of the most basic human rights: the right to healthy, accessible food. Entangled in the global COVID-19 pandemic and climate-related disasters are layers of wealth, race, privilege and language that affect the ability of Central Coast communities to survive and thrive.
In this webinar, we explored how CEC’s Food Rescue program and other local efforts are working to support those most vulnerable to hunger – particularly students, unsheltered populations, farm workers and seniors. We also discussed the work of the Santa Barbara County Food Action Network to equitably stitch together the torn fabrics of our food system – from local farmers and fishermen, to local restaurants and distributors.
Inside Julia’s Kitchen: Meet Julia Blanton, SBC Food Rescue Program Coordinator
Recently on Inside Julia’s Kitchen, a podcast of The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, host Todd Schulkin talked with CEC’s SBC Food Rescue Coordinator Julia Blanton about food rescue and how it has been used to address food insecurity and put restaurants back to work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Plus, Julia shares her “Julia Moment”.
Divert Film Plastic and Styrofoam
The Community Environmental Council (CEC) and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (SBCK) are pleased to support Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners in collecting and repurposing hard-to-recycle film plastics.
WIN: City of Santa Barbara moves to #DitchPlastic
Your support helped the City of Santa Barbara continue to ditch single-use plastic. With a hundred signatures and individuals showing up to testify at City Council, a ban on Styrofoam food service items & retail sales will go into effect January 1, 2019, as well as a ban on plastic straws with a provision that food providers must ask customers if they need plastic cutlery or stirrers before providing.
A Lunch Service for the Planet
For several years, the online learning company lynda.com has provided free daily lunch for employees. Now the Carpinteria-based company is helping employees Ditch Plastic by piloting a reusable container system for those who want to take their lunch to-go.
From Day One
3,292. That’s how many disposable diapers the typical baby uses in its first year, and all of them go into a landfill.
80. That’s about how many cloth diapers Dexter used in his first year, and none of them went into a landfill.
Reducing Plastic Through Refills
For years, Peter Tatikian and his wife, Kelley Skumautz, have made a game out of avoiding buying single-use plastic bags. This has been especially interesting when it comes to picking up after their terrier/chihuahua mix, Ollie. It takes a little more creativity on every dog walk. “We have become very inventive in finding bags to pick up poop,” Peter says. This has included paper wrappers, tortilla chip bags, frozen vegetable packaging, and even the plastic mailing sleeves that magazines get mailed in.
Drinking It In: Eliminating single-use plastic bottles
Rethink the Drink started in 2010 with a simple concept: provide schools with an alternative to single-use plastic water bottles and see if habit change followed. Four years later, we are proud to report that habit change is indeed possible. There are now 39 water refill stations in schools and community facilities across Santa Barbara County, and they have been used more than 870,000 times. Creating a single plastic water bottle emits 2.6 pounds of carbon dioxide, thus the amount of carbon dioxide emissions mitigated by our refill stations is more than 2 million pounds.