Echo Park Improvement Association
Meets at 7 p.m. the 1st Thursday of each Monthin Williams Hall at Barlow Hospital 2000 Stadium Way in Elysian Park
Trash and littering are not unique to Echo Park. Itseems to have become a universal blight that threat-ens even what we consider pristine areas. Whilehousehold trash is regularly collected from color-coded bins by the LA City Bureau of Sanitation, trashin public areas receives limited attention. This situa-tion needs to be addressed more meaningfully at thelocal, neighborhood level.Trash collection from the handful of bus shelterscannot keep pace with the mounds of trash generatedin a day. The wide-mouthed mesh trash containerspile high with trash spilling overinto streets and storm drains.More trashcans are not the soleanswer. About 20% of the 90026Zip Code area use public transpor-tation. Subjecting this group tostanding around a half dozentrashcans spilling over with uncol-lected trash is neither fair nor nec-essary.Until the announcement of Big-Belly
®
, a solar operated trash com-pactor-trashcan manufactured bythe Seahorse Power Company inMassachusetts, neighborhoodshad little access to addressingtrash other than feel-good-come-together sporadiccommunity trash clean-ups. The BigBelly
®
trash com-paction system allows for four times as much trash tobe held than a regular trash can. BigBelly
®
is safe,durable, ergonomically designed and can help meetthe City's obligation to address the issue of StormWater pollution, a grave concern to the City.The Echo Park Chamber of Commerce stated Big-Belly
®
is "unproven". The following have utilized Big-Belly
®
: Boston [45 units], Worcester, Needham, andSpencer, Massachusetts; Flushing [50 units], East-hampton, and Riverhead, New York; the US ForestService; Washington, DC parks; Carnegie-Mellon Uni-versity, Pennsylvania; Hartford County, Maryland; Ber-gen County, NJ, Ventura, CA; and the Cincinnati ParksService. Vancouver, BC, Canada, has also had Big-Belly's assistance. How many more cities or agenciesneed to test these solar operated trash compactor-trashcans before they are proven?The Chamber also objected to the cost, between$4,500 to $ 5,000per unit, and feel it is a waste ofcity funds. However, the Cincinnati cost analysis re-port indicated that the unit pays for itself in 3.8 yearsvia savings. Such cost effectiveness should not be dis-missed with impunity. Echo Parkcould go from 440 regular trash-cans to 150 BigBelly
®
systems overthe space of a few years.Maintenance is another issue ofthe Chamber's concern. Batteryreplacement is $90 every three tofour years and the trash bags arebiodegradable. The sale of adver-tisement space on the side panelsof the bin could meet maintenanceneeds.There are funding sources read-ily available to the neighborhood topurchase a limited number of Big-Belly
®
solar trash compactors forareas with high use. While these funds are available,Echo Park needs to secure them. The benefits areenormous to Echo Park and BigBelly
®
could be a partof the neighborhoods effort to improve the quality oflife both for itself and the marine environment, nowimpacted by trash and water pollution entering thestorm drain system.Echo Park TAP (Trash Abatement Project) hasbeen doing trash surveys to establish high use areaswhere BigBelly
®
might be located. Towards this endTAP has asked the Greater Echo Park ElysianNeighborhood Council (GEPENC) to write a letter to
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by Ida Talalla, Echo Park resident and Trash Abatement Project (TAP) organizer
NEWSLETTER CREDITS
EDITORS:
LYNN BARBÉ
STEVEN M. ARTHURADVERTISINGFLORA KERPDESKTOP PUBLISHING:S.M.ART SYSTEMSPRINTING:LYMAN PRINTING
M
EMORANDUMS
I
NVOICES
L
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NVELOPES
B
USINESS
C
ARDS
P
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NVELOPES
Lyman CommercialPrinting
1201 N. A
LVARADO
(213) 413-5355L
OS
A
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, CA 90026 (213) 413-5469 F
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ABLA
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SPAÑOL
Los Angeles CitywideService Directory
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public service:
Dial 311
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
SOLAR ELECTRIC SOLUTIONS
The sun never sends a monthly bill!
©
call for afree site visit & estimate
(909) 865-8561
EXPERT
•
EXPERIENCED
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Steven Arthur, Efficient Energy Specialist
C-10/C-46 lic.#827074
MAKE YOUR OWN ELECTRICITY
(323)
girl’s teen yoga
Pilates
Once again the EPIA will be participating in theTree People free fruit tree giveaway program. Thisprogram by the Tree People to bring together treesand local communities has, over the last threedecades, planted more than 60,000 trees inbackyards, schools and community gardens.Generous donations from the Tree People will makethese trees available to our community at no charge.This year the trees available are apple, apricot,nectarine, peach, plum and orange. Aside from thecontainerized oranges, all trees are deciduous and
“bare
-
root”.
Once again we will pickup the trees at one of theTree People distribution sites on Saturday. There wewill trim and prepare the bare-root trees fortransport to our neighborhood. On Sunday, we willdistribute the trees to those who have madereservations. To make a reservation for two trees
–
the limit so that everyone has an opportunity to getsome trees
–
leave you name, phone number andthe variety of tree(s) that you would like.In the past a group of volunteers has gone onSaturday to the Tree People nursery to prepare theyoung trees for distribution. This year thepreparation site has been changed while the TreePeople undergo major renovations at theirMulholand Drive and Coldwater Canyon nursery sowe will be heading to one of two as yetundetermined distribution sites to prepare and loadthe trees to bring them back to Echo Park.We can use volunteers for the preparation eventon Saturday and for distribution of the reservedtrees the following day when the trees will beavailable for pickup in Echo Park to those who havemade a reservation.To volunteer or to reserve a tree, leave your nameand phone number on the EPIA Hot Line (323) 882-4835. Speak clearly so that we contact you when alldetails are known.
EPIA Annual Free Fruit Tree Giveaway
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