Notes about your surroundings
Un-decorating--To cope with the post-holiday mess, Anaheim Disposal, in its annual recycling newsletter, offers these tips: Do recycle wrapping paper and gift boxes, clean aluminum foil and roasting pans, cardboard packing and mailing boxes, and securely bagged packing peanuts. Items that cannot be recycled include tree trimmings, holiday lights, tree stands, soft types of foam packaging and loose packing peanuts. To recycle a Christmas tree, the stand--wood or metal--must be removed, as well as all decorations. If the tree is over 6 feet tall, cut it in half before placing it at the curb on collection day.
The UCI Arboretum points out that holiday poinsettias are grown in greenhouses and need to be kept indoors until the nights warm up in May. Once planted outdoors, poinsettias will grow 8 feet high and several feet across.
Info Link Orange County lists the following groups that recycle holiday cards:
* Grace Hodnett, 7281 El Cerro Drive, Buena Park, CA 90620. A church group uses the cards each year for special projects for penal institutions. Send only the fronts of cards.
* St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, Box 1426C, Boulder City, NV 89005. The UPS address is 100 St. Jude St. The children at St. Jude’s have been recycling cards for more than 15 years.
* International Aid Inc., 17011 W. Hickory, Spring Lake, MI 49456.
Monkey Business--Volunteers who would like to help teach education programs at the Santa Ana Zoo are invited to attend a docent training workshop Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. to noon, Jan. 28 through March 27. The zoo’s education department offers school tours, a traveling Zoomobile, weekend family classes and “Critter’s Corner,” a public contact center with live exotic animals.
The workshop provides a behind-the-scenes look at the zoo and techniques for teaching in the unique setting of a zoo. Docents learn how to handle and present the animals used in the zoo’s education programs. Bilingual volunteers are especially needed. Minimum age is 18.
For an application, call the zoo’s education department at (714) 836-4000. The zoo is in Prentice Park, 1801 E. Chestnut Ave., Santa Ana.
