Cecilia Fischer
UPATE: WE ARE JUST MAKING TO NOPOLO BEACH, arriving 4pm, we got stuck this AM at San Basilio beaches. 
So sorry if you were this AM at Nopolo beach waiting for us.
Thanks to Lilisita Lucero Orozco, local concerned citizen, we learned that a heavy metals testing had been performed 
in Santa Rosalia beaches showing presence of lead, cobalt, cadmium, arsenic and copper - with levels as per EPA 
(Geo-environmental index in USA) between "strong to extremely polluted". This study was done by the Instituto Politecnico Nacional (National Polytechnic Institute) by Dr Dr. M.P. Jonathan and Dr. Pedro Rodriguez Espinosa. As per local 
request by many citizen, among them Linda Ramirez, The Ocean Foundation (President Mark Spalding) via Keep Loreto
 
Save The Planet, Starting With Loreto Bay
Are you passionate about this planet?   Do you believe in “think global, act local”?  Then this is your chance!

As we mentioned in our last newsletter, Fonatur, the department of the Mexican Government
responsible for tourism, has partnered with an international consulting group called 
EarthCheck, an Australian company that promotes sustainability initiatives. EarthCheck
evaluates the performance of cities in moving towards sustainability goals
in many different areas from recycling to safety issues. 
 
Nopolo, which includes Loreto Bay, is one of only three cities in all of Mexico that have
received international certification from EarthCheck.  We in Loreto Bay want to make sure
that we continue to receive this important certification, not only for the obvious benefits to
the environment, but also for the benefits to our community of increased tourism and
the support of Fonatur in maintaining and developing this area.

As part of this program, cities need to continue progressing in their initiatives each year
and are audited on their performance.  Fonatur has approached Loreto Bay and asked
for our assistance in documenting the progress that is being made within our community. 

As you know, our trash collection has always been sorted into three separate bins:
Black for trash, Blue for recycling and Green for compostables.  Many people have
expressed skepticism that the sorting process goes any further than that, but you will
be pleased to know that it does!  As part of this documenting process, it has been
confirmed that after Trash is picked up from the sorting bins at the houses and taken
to the Trash collection truck, a separate employee (his name is Ramon) opens every bag 
and sorts through them, further sorting out plastics, organics, aluminum and
trash waste. This is then separately bagged in the back of the truck with recyclables set
to one side.  At the end of the day, the trash truck drops the recyclables back at the staging
area and takes the trash to the dump.  The recyclables are taken to the recycling facility
a few times a week, depending on volume.  Weekly reports are provided to Eduardo
tracking the volume of each type of waste material.

The bad news is that recently, we have not been doing very well.  Look in almost any of our
bins and you will see a sad assortment of mixed-up trash and unfortunately, it only takes
one bag of wet garbage to contaminate a whole bin full of recyclables.  We can do better!

Let’s all make a vow to make Ramon’s job a little easier and be more diligent in our
household sorting.  When trash and organics are mixed in with recyclables,
the end result is all just trash. Here are a few tips:
Organics are also collected and sorted.  You can put your organics(verduras)in bags
as the bags are opened and then discarded.Glass is trash. Sad but true,
so put it in the black bins Soiled cardboard is trash so put your pizza boxes in the 
black binsWash out milk cartons and other recyclable containers. 
They cannot be recycled if they are dirtyRinse out aluminum cans before recycling
them – apart from anything else, it discourages flies. Want to help? 
If you have a passion for the environment and would like to support our Loreto Bay 
efforts, please consider volunteering some of your time to this worthy cause. 
Don’t worry, we won’t put you in the truck with Ramon, but we do need people to
help us to co-ordinate and improve our efforts.  We would like to form a 4-5 person 
committee to work with the HOA and with the other Nopolo groups, to ensure that we
keep our certification and take it to a higher level.  

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to further our sustainability
goals and to encourage other Mexican cities to follow our lead.  We will be
posting more information as we have it on our website, www.LoretoBay.ca, so watch
for it there and remember, Reduce, Re-use and Recycle.