Outreach & Education

Waste Management Education and Outreach Efforts for Imperial County Communities

IVRMA's Outreach and Education program provides extensive outreach to the communities of Brawley, Calexico, Calipatria, El Centro, Holtville, Imperial, Westmorland, and unincorporated areas in Imperial County. Several recycling laws have been passed or are in the process of being passed, bringing California one step closer to its long-term objectives of a safe and clean environment for all of its residents.

Our Outreach and Education department responds to questions and distributes educational materials and information regarding waste prevention, reuse, repair, composting, and recycling. The Outreach Department provides educational flyers and brochures at community events, IVRMA and City Clean Up events, workshops, on-site visits to businesses, and through different presentations, including Intro to Recycling, Recycling Organics, Oil and Beyond, and Household Hazardous Waste. The presentations offered can be adapted to fit the needs of the audience. The presentations can be offered at schools, agencies, businesses, and libraries.

IVRMA Coordinated clean-up events

IVRMA staff also coordinates clean-up events to assist communities in properly recycling and disposing of residential waste tires, used oil, fluorescent bulbs, batteries, appliances, and more!

IVRMA also collaborates with CR&R, and Republic Services hosts community clean-up events that include a collection of IVRMA-acceptable items plus your hauler's collection items such as bulky items and green waste. For more information on what your neighborhood hauler collects during these events,

Please contact your designated trash hauler  

During these events, we provide residents with free blue bins and oil containers along with information on all our programs.

Check out our event calendar to know when a clean-up event will be near you.

Find out how we apply our outreach and education to each of the following:

To help meet California’s recycling goal of 75% by the year 2020, the IVRMA Outreach Department provides different resources for Imperial County residents. IVRMA’s Recycling Campaign is supported through different agencies.

Through IVRMA’s Recycling Campaign, IVRMA offers free blue recycling bins to schools, agencies, and residents. IVRMA provides a Recycling Guide on how to prevent contamination, and how to reduce waste at community events, schools, and local businesses.  The Outreach Department creates content on the proper disposal of recyclable material for the department website and social media for posting. IVRMA offers a presentation on Introduction to Recycling at schools and libraries. The topics of this presentation include the importance of managing resources, reducing our trash, reusing discarded items, and recycling in our community. Students participate in a hands-on activity, the Recycling Relay, to learn how to effectively sort discarded items for reducing, reusing, and recycling.

IVRMA partners with jurisdictions to inform commercial businesses, public entities, and multi-family apartments with five or more units to have a recycling program in place. We provide informational brochures on managing resources and reducing waste.

IVRMA provides recycling collection and information services for IVRMA Clean Up Events. In these events, IVRMA provides free blue recycling bins and to meet the goal of maximizing waste reduction.

To divert organics from landfills the IVRMA Outreach Department provides educational flyers and brochures to residents and businesses in the cities that need to comply with this mandate. The educational materials are provided at community events, and during presentations to residents. IVRMA offers a Recycling Organics presentation that provides information on the state mandates AB1826 and SB1383 for businesses or residents. Residents learn what is organic waste, the implantation of AB1826 and SB1383, the food recovery hierarchy pyramid, how to reduce food waste, and how to use the kitchen food pails. For businesses, the presentation provides specific information that the agency will need to comply with the new mandate.  The Outreach Department creates content on the proper disposal of organic waste for the department website and social media for posting.

SB 1383 aims to decrease the amount of organic waste—including edible food—that is disposed of in landfills. The law aims to alleviate food insecurity in California and cut greenhouse gas emissions, including methane. This law's provisions guarantee that food scraps are composted and that cities buy compost. For inedible food or other organic material, composting, industrial usage, and animal feed are appropriate environmental uses. IVRMA offers Edible Food Generators (EFG) and Edible Food Recovery Organizations (EFRO) educational materials and presentations on SB1383. The material includes information on Collection and Recycling, Procurement Requirements: Using Recycled Organics Products, Food Recovery, Capacity Planning, Enforcement, Recordkeeping Requirements, Department Issued Waivers and Exemptions, and Reporting. IVRMA also partners with jurisdictions to promote the Kitchen Food Pails to residents of El Centro.

California state law requires each jurisdiction in California to divert at least 50% of its waste stream away from landfills either through waste reduction, recycling, or other means. The Outreach Department does not provide Enforcement to jurisdictions, but the outreach department does provide informational content on how residents and businesses can dispose of solid waste. The outreach department provides informational material through flyers and brochures to residents at community events, clean up events, and in presentations. The Household Hazardous Waste  presentation highlights how to properly handle hazardous materials that are found in our homes. Students/residents learn what makes something hazardous, how can we tell if something is hazardous, and how we can dispose of the material properly. Businesses get information on how to properly dispose of their solid waste during on site visits done by the outreach department.  The Outreach Department creates content on solid waste management for the department website and social media for posting.

SB212 regulates the management and handling of medical waste. The IVRMA outreach department offers informational brochures on where and how to properly dispose of sharps. The Outreach Department creates content on the proper disposal of sharp waste for the department website and social media for posting. Imperial County residents can dispose of medical sharp waste at any HHW facility. IVRMA has partnered with CR&R to promote their Sharps Containers to corresponding residents.

SB 1016 builds on AB 939 compliance requirements. The IVRMA outreach department provides residents and businesses with brochures on how to properly dispose of solid waste. Information on the HHW facilities is provided at community events, clean-up events, and presentations.  The Outreach Department creates content on the proper disposal of solid waste for the department website and social media for posting.The Household Hazardous Waste presentation highlights how to properly handle hazardous materials that are found in our homes. Residents learn what makes something hazardous, how we can tell if something is hazardous, and how we can dispose of the material properly.

The IVRMA Outreach Department provides residents with information on where to properly dispose of their Construction and Demolition materials. The Outreach Department creates content on the proper disposal of construction and demolition for the department website and social media for posting. Residents can contact the Outreach and Education Coordinators at IVRMA’s hotline at 1(877) RECYCLE.

The Outreach department promotes the VSQG Program to qualifying agencies and businesses by providing on-site informational material to potential clients. The informational material provides small businesses information on how to participate, and the requirements necessary to qualify for the program.

Visit our Very Small Quantity Generators Disposal Program page for more information.

Under the Waste Tire Cleanup Program illegal tire piles are collected, removed, transported, and recycled. The Outreach Department promotes the Waste Tire Clean-Up Program by providing brochures and flyers at community events in all jurisdictions. The educational material includes information on how residents can maintain their tires for the long run, and how illegal dumping can be avoided. The outreach department also creates The Outreach department offers residents information on the proper disposal of tires.

Visit our Waste Tire Clean-Up Program page for more information.

The purpose of this program is to provide free and convenient waste tire collection events for the public to bring in their waste tires at no charge. The Outreach department collaborates with the trash haulers at City Clean Up Events in virtue of IVRMA community clean-up events. At these clean-up events, the outreach department provides educational material on the HHW and Used Oil Program. The outreach department also provides free oil containers and recycling bins to residents. The Outreach department also advertises the clean-up events through direct outreach to the city's residents. 

Visit our Waste Tire Amnesty Program page for more information.

The Used Oil Program is promoted through the outreach department in various ways. IVRMA HHW facilities are Certified Collection Centers, therefore we collect Imperial County residents used oil, used antifreeze, and used oil filters at our HWW Facilities. The outreach department provides advertisements for the Certified Collection Centers, including the HHW facilities, at community events, and clean-up events. The outreach department also provided free oil containers at community events and clean-up events.

Visit our Used Oil Program page for more information.

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