If you’re tired of seeing those old paint cans in the garage or that old jug of used motor oil in the back shed, bring them to the County's upcoming household hazardous waste collection event on Sunday, April 1st at the Santa Ynez Valley Recycling and Transfer Station.

Using County mulch could not only save you water and beautify your garden, you could get rebates from your water provider too!

County residents can participate in Mulch Madness by adding mulch to their landscapes to improve the health and water-saving capacity of their gardens - - and certain water providers offer cash rebates to help subsidize the cost of materials. Best of all, those rebates aren’t limited to mulch, but also pertain to other “smart landscaping” improvements such as switching to drip irrigation, turf removal, planting water-wise plants, and making other changes which reduce water usage in the garden.

The Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County celebrated the most recent Santa Barbara County businesses to achieve the Green Business certification at a luncheon February 15. The companies most recently certified are: Aqua-Flo Supply (Goleta), the Chumash Casino Resort –Hotel (Santa Ynez), Santa Barbara Airbus (Goleta), True Nature (Goleta), four UCSB Dining Commons, and Z Folio Gallery (Solvang).

If you’re tired of seeing those old paint cans in the garage or that old jug of used motor oil in the back shed, bring them to an upcoming household hazardous waste collection event. The Santa Barbara County Public Works Department is holding two events in early October – on Saturday, October 1 in New Cuyama and on Sunday, October 2 in the Santa Ynez Valley.

The largest volunteer cleanup in Santa Barbara County had another huge year. With 100% of the sites reporting, 1221 volunteers collected more than 6,114 pounds of trash and 1,095 pounds of recyclables from 30 sites from Rincon Beach Park to Guadalupe Dunes in Santa Barbara County.

Join our Facebook Page at Facebook.com/SBCoast to keep up with next year's cleanup, September 15^th, 2012.

Read more about the event after the break.

Coastal Cleanup Day, Sept. 17th from 9 until Noon, is the biggest volunteer cleanup event in Santa Barbara County and the world! Join your neighbors at one of our over 25 sites and help protect our coast, creeks and lakes!

How big is the event? Last year, 1267 volunteers cleaned nearly 5110 pounds of debris from 28 Santa Barbara County beaches and creeks! Volunteers also saved over 500 bags by bringing their own buckets or reusing bags! Bringing buckets and reusable gloves, such as gardening gloves, is also encouraged to help make this the cleanest greenest Coastal Cleanup Day yet.

Visit LessIsMore.org/Coast to see where we are cleaning and register at your favorite site. Also, be a pal and friend us on facebook at Facebook.com/SBCoast

Earth Machine Composting bins would make a great Earth Day present! The County of Santa Barbara sells these bins for only $40, which is more than half off their retail price.

If you need more information about composting in general, check out our composting page at LessIsMore.org/compost

For the second year in a row, the Santa Barbara County Public Works Department (parent of LessIsMore.org)has struck gold by winning a prestigious Gold excellence Award from the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). Last year the County took top honors for its overall Integrated Waste Management system. This year’s award is for Marketing, as embodied by the Green Waste Awareness campaign conducted in 2008 by the Resource Recovery & Waste Management Division (RRWMD).