SAN DIEGO, April 14, 2006 - For 36 years, people all around the world have celebrated Earth Day each April 22. What started as a grassroots environmental recognition program has in that time evolved into a worldwide campaign to protect our planet.

“We at Waste Management work 365 days a year all throughout North America to protect our planet by implementing waste-to-energy projects, creating recycling programs and using alternative fuel trucks, and we hope that the annual Earth Day celebration might serve as a catalyst for others to start thinking about conservation, recycling and reuse,” said Carl Scherbaum, district manager of Waste Management of San Diego. “We take our company theme line ‘Think Green’ very seriously – thinking green means we have employees who are experts in not only safely disposing of waste, but also reducing it, recycling it and converting it for alternative use.”

Waste Management’s comprehensive services provide not only for the collection, transfer and disposal of the 4.5 pounds of waste the average American produces each day, but also include recycling and resource recovery.

“We are North America’s largest recycler,” said Scherbaum. “Our almost 100 renewable energy projects – capturing landfill gas and converting solid waste to energy – produce the equivalent of enough electricity to power more than 800,000 homes and save the equivalent of about eight million barrels of oil each year.”

In San Diego, Waste Management is proud to support the following upcoming activities that promote the idea that “every day is Earth Day:”

• The San Diego River Park Foundation and the Friends of Mission Valley Preserve will join together with sponsors and more than 100 volunteers to clean up the river in the Mission Valley Preserve region, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 29. For more information, visit http://www.sandiegoriver.org.
• The Lakeside River Park Conservancy and I Love a Clean San Diego, as part of San Diego River Day, will hold a cleanup at Lakeside River Park on Saturday, May 20, from 8 a.m. to noon. A total of 20 events will be held along the 52-mile San Diego River on May 20. For more information, visit http://www.lakesideriverpark.org.

Waste Management of San Diego regularly donates bins and service for community cleanups such as these, in addition to providing waste and recycling services to its curbside customers and visitors to its recycling center in El Cajon.

These recycling and recovery efforts go a long way to reducing the waste entering our landfills nationwide – and it’s not simply the traditional view of recycling, meaning turning in bottles and cans for processing and reuse, that helps achieve this goal.

Among the waste generated by Americans annually is 1.6 million tons of “household hazardous waste” (HHW), which includes paints, cleaners, stains and varnishes, car batteries, motor oil and pesticides. Not only do these items need to be properly handled to eliminate the health risks these materials can pose to people and the environment, but this also helps to ensure that whatever elements can be recycled from HHW are in fact recycled.

One way to reduce HHW is to use non-hazardous or less hazardous products. You can do this by reducing the amount of products you purchase that have hazardous components or using only the amount you need. Share leftover materials with your neighbors, businesses or community organizations, or give them to a HHW program. For example, excess pesticide can be offered to a greenhouse, garden center or community garden, and theater groups can always use surplus paint.

Recycling is an economical and environmentally sound way to handle some types of HHW, such as used car batteries and oil. Auto parts stores and service stations frequently accept used batteries, and 80 percent of these batteries are currently recycled. Also, many service stations collect used oil as a service to their customers. Tires can also be recycled into a number of products, ranging from artificial reefs to playground equipment to roofing, or used for crash barriers or erosion control.

“These are just a couple of ways residents of San Diego can practice Earth Day every day and contribute to a greener planet,” said Scherbaum. “At Waste Management, green is more than just the color of our trucks and containers. It is a daily reminder to our more than 50,000 employees across North America of the important role we all play as stewards of the environment. By working together and staying involved, we've been able to make a positive difference in neighborhoods in San Diego and all across North America.”

For more information on Earth Day, visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at http://www.epa.gov/earthday/index.htm.

Waste Management, Inc. is the leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in North America. For more information about recycling, log onto www.wm.com.

#          #            #