Sometimes practicing sustainability
requires us to think outside the box.
When local nonprofit Sustainable Surplus was
approached by colleagues at the City of San Diego about finding a home for 150 used
bus-stop benches, CEO Sue Prelozni had to put on her thinking cap. After she exhausted her “green network” in
San Diego County, she reached out to her friends at the Binational Coalition of
Nonprofits (BCN) in Mexico.
BCN partner, Adolfo Delgado, Executive
Director of the Comité Binacional Unidos por la Niñez (CBUN) was able to give
her an unequivocal “yes.” He made a few
calls to nonprofit and charitable organizations they serve in Mexico and he committed
to taking all the benches.
There
was a resounding sense of relief and satisfaction with all parties involved.
The
benches are made of a fiberglass material which is very difficult to recycle
and will not naturally
decompose.
“Their
footprint in the landfill would have been huge – about 19 cubic yards,”
explained Steve Weihe, Recycling Specialist with the City of San Diego
Environmental Services Department.
“The
City of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department (ESD) staff identified a
potential reuse opportunity to divert the bus benches from the Miramar
Landfill,” said ESD Director, Mario Sierra. “With assistance from Sustainable
Surplus and the Bi-national Coalition of Non-profits, the benches were refurbished
and repurposed. Examples like this highlight ESD’s commitment to the City’s
Zero Waste Plan.”
Prelozni added, “Our participation in the Binational
Coalition, especially our work with Mr. Delgado’s organization, has resulted in
a dozen cross-border donations this year.” The coalition was formed in 2017 to
facilitate the handling of donated items that cannot be reused or repurposed
locally.
According to Delgado, the benches are
being distributed in the state of Sinaloa, the cities of Mazatlan and Culiacan;
Loreto in Baja California Sur, and in Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito and Ensenada in
Baja California. “They will be used in
parks, churches, schools, and community centers,” he added.
“When we
learned that the owner of the old benches was planning to dispose of them in
the landfill, we were grateful that Sustainable Surplus stepped up and found
new homes for them,” said Rob Schupp Director of Marketing and Communications
for the Metropolitan Transit System. “Sustainability is a core value of public
transportation and this is a great example of agencies coming together to find
solutions that are good for the planet.”
Key to the project is the goal of ongoing
sustainability. Everyone from the City
of San Diego, MTS, SSE and BCN agreed that this program should continue as a
solution for future redistribution of benches and serve to be an example of
environmental awareness to other communities.
