Menlo Park honors recycling, tree-saving efforts Menlo Park honors recycling, tree-saving efforts (July 06, 2005)

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

Imagine dragging 694 tons of glass, plastic and cardboard out to the curb on recycling pickup day.

All right, so it didn't happen exactly like that at the Diageo bottling plant in Menlo Park. But the company did recycle 694 tons of material in the past year, including wooden pallets and the charcoal used to filter vodka, according to city officials. That's why it's been chosen to receive one of seven Environmental Quality Awards from the city's Environmental Quality Commission.

Diageo officials were in good company when they received their award at the City Council meeting on June 21.

Also honored for its high level of recycling was the Sharon Heights Country Club, which reduced its garbage from 48 to 22 cubic yards per week, thanks to recycling more bottles and cans, mixed paper, cardboard and other materials, said Dianne Dryer, the city's environmental programs coordinator.

The third award for recycling went to Menlo Park resident Catherine McMillan for setting up a recycling committee at Oak Knoll Elementary School, helping the school increase its rate of recycling by nearly one-third. The sizeable quantities of Oak Knoll materials that got recycled included 1,755 batteries, 93 printer cartridges and 300 pairs of sneakers, Ms. Dryer said.

The awards also had a cultural and historic category. The Menlo Park Fire Protection District got the nod for its work preserving the city's first firehouse, a little 1900 building with an old fire hose wagon inside.

This year, the city combined its Environmental Quality Awards with its annual Heritage Tree Awards, which meant that three groups were also honored on June 21 for taking good care of their large trees.

Belle Haven Elementary School was honored for its weeping willow tree in the kindergarten playground. Resident Matt Henry, who nominated the tree, wrote in his application, "The thought of this quiet old stately tree at one end of the spectrum and these young, not so quiet, kids at the other end seems to add an intangible value to both the kids and the tree."

The Willis-Eijk family was also honored for its redwood tree on Middle Avenue, as was the Park Forest Three Homeowners' Association for its grove of 14 redwood trees.

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