With the holidays behind us, you may need more room for the new electronics you received. Or maybe you have a New Year’s resolution to finally clean out your closets or garage. Here’s your chance to get started!

This Saturday, January 9, sfcleancity.com will host a free electronic recycling drop-off at Ocean Beach. Drop off free of charge any of the following items:

- TVs and monitors
- Computers and laptops
- Scanners and printers
- Cell phones
- Fax machines
- Ethernet cables
- Telephones and telephone systems
- VCRs, DVD players
- All networking equipment (e.g. routers)

Note that no appliances or microwaves will be accepted.

Drop off your e-waste between 9am and 2pm on Saturday at the Ocean Beach parking lot across from the Beach Chalet restaurant near Fulton. You must have a valid California driver’s license or ID card.

A drop-off will also be held the same day and time at the West Sunset Playground Parking Lot (parking lot on Quintara between 40th and 41st).

Sarah B.

You just never know what’s lurking behind some homes in the Richmond District… The Examiner ran an article recently on outer Richmond resident and artist, Nomi Klein, who has turned her backyard into a giant chess set.

You’ll need your brain and your brawn to play with this chess set. The board, made with paving tiles, measures 16 feet square and the chess pieces are as tall as 43 inches and weigh 12 pounds. That could lead to some dramatic check-mating!

A photo showing Klein’s giant chess pieces. Inset photo of her Richmond garden, courtesy of the Examiner.

According to the Examiner article, Klein said she first thought of creating a massive chess set when she was a child visiting Salzburg, Austria, where she saw people playing the game outdoors.

Her art and design career took her from Israel to New York, Mexico and San Diego. She studied machine design and did mechanical drawing during military service, as well as studying art.

She created her first giant chess set while she was in Mexico. Some 10 years after she started, her chess pieces — which are all made by hand — are in hotels and private gardens around the U.S. and abroad. A set of her giant pieces sells for $15,500 on chessusa.com.

Read the full article at SFExaminer.com.

Sarah B.

Here are some details on how to dispose of your Christmas tree this year:

- Trees can be put out for collection, free of charge, from January 4-8 and January 11-15.

- Please place clean unflocked trees next to your garbage cans on your regularly scheduled collection day (don’t leave them on the street corner!).

- Be sure to remove all tinsel, decorations, plastic bags, stands, and lights.

- If your tree is over 6 feet, please cut it in half.

- If your usual collection day is Friday, there will be no service on the 25th or the 1st; pickup will be on Saturday December 26 and January 2.

Sarah B.

The Chronicle today has a nice article that goes into more depth on the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway that opened a few weeks ago at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. As you may recall, much of the landscape around the railroad is made from recycled materials. Well, that’s putting it nicely. It’s made from garbage.

One of the groups involved in the exhibit’s creation was The Bay Area Garden Railway Society, comprised of aficionados who have created and maintain their own garden railways at home.

Along with a former artist-in-residence from the city dump, the group created San Francisco landmarks using discarded goods recycled from the trash. Cereal boxes were transformed into “The Painted Ladies” row of victorian homes, City Hall’s dome was made from an old collander, and “the building’s Styrofoam core is clad with ice cube trays and refrigerator egg racks, and the front steps are a computer keyboard.”

This year’s railway also incoporates a soundscape to make the landscape come alive. Andrew Roth of Natural Sounds dangled mics from the Golden Gate Bridge to capture the fog horns, and incorporated his recordings of the historic sounds of the Castro Theater’s organ, along with the squawking Telegraph Hill’s wild parrots and the bark of the sea lions of Pier 39.

There’s even the sounds of a rumbling earthquake once an hour, of which conservatory staffer Dolores Gebhart says, “I hope people don’t start running from the building.”

Read the full Chronicle article here to learn more about how the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway was put together. Or check out more photos and video of the exhibit at SFAppeal.com.

See it now through April 18, 2010 at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, open Tuesday through Sunday from 9am – 5pm.

Sarah B.

Drive by the free ewaste dropoff point at Ocean Beach this Saturday from 9am – 2pm to safely dispose of your unwanted electronic items for free.

The drop off point will be in the Ocean Beach parking lot, directly across from the Beach Chalet restaurant.

Please note that you must show a valid California driver’s license or ID. You can recycle any of the following items:

A note from the organizers, sfcleancity.com: We are sorry but we will not be able to accept appliances of any kind or microwaves. Please be prepared to take any boxes or containers used to bring items back home with you.

More info & location map

Thanks to PAR for the tip.

Sarah B.

A reader named Michele wrote in to tell me about a SF Department of Public Works project to replace the dozens of street trees planted earlier this year that died due to lack of water.

The trees were planted by a private contractor who guaranteed them, so they will now be coming back to replace them.

We need your help in identifying the affected trees in your area of the Richmond. The trees in this program were planted along Anza, Balboa and Cabrillo Streets and on some intersecting Avenues. You can recognize them by the three wooden pole supports that surround each tree.

If you have a tree nearby that matches this description (refer to the photo) and it is not showing new leaves, it is probably dead and due for replacement.

To ensure that the DPW project includes all affected trees in the replacement program, please send specific location information on the dead tree to Carla.Short@sfdpw.org by Monday evening.

Remember, the particular trees in this project should be surrounded by three pole supports as pictured here. When emailing, include the closest street address to the affected tree.

Sarah B.

SF Schtuff reminded me today that beginning October 21, all San Francisco households and businesses are required to separate recyclables, compostables and landfill trash and participate in recycling and composting programs.

That means that you’re not supposed to scrape kitchen scraps into your regular trash anymore. They should be put into your green, compost bin for collection. For many of us, me included, this is a new practice and frankly it sort of sounds like a pain in the butt.

So the city is doing what it can to ease the transition, including providing free green kitchen pails to anyone who needs one. These are small containers that can sit on your counter, under the sink -wherever it’s convenient. Line the pail with a compostable garbage bag (“Bio Bag”), available at most supermarkets these days, and you’ve got a pretty painless solution that does the earth good.

To get your free green kitchen pail, go to recyclingmoments.org and click the “Get a green or blue cart” link on the left hand side. When the form pops up, look for the “I’m inquiring about” section and select “Free kitchen pail”.

The site also has great info on what goes into what cart, now that we have three to contend with. The easiest way to remember what goes in your green cart is this: everything that used to be alive. Here’s a list of items that should go in the green cart:

Food: fruits, vegetables, meat and bones, rice, cheese
Soiled paper: napkins, butter wrappers, coffee filters and tea bags, paper plates, greasy pizza boxes
Waxed paper: paper milk and ice cream cartons, paper takeout containers
Plants: flowers, plants, grass, weeds, twigs
Compostable plastics: Plastic bottles or food containers that are clearly labeled “compostable”

I ordered my free pail last week and haven’t heard anything yet. But I have faith my little green friend will join my household soon, at least in time for October 21 when the law goes into effect.

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UPDATE (Aug 18, 2009): I got an email from Lulu at my garbage company that said “Please call our service dept 415-626-4000 to set up the program before I can send you a green pail”. Hmm…

Sarah B.

As reported in the recent issue of the Richmond Review, Supervisor Eric Mar and members of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission walked door-to-door on Geary Boulevard June 10 to encourage businesses to participate in SFGreasecycle, the City’s free grease-to-biofuel recycling program. Currently about 600 restaurants in the city participate.

Beginning today, city residents can also recycle their cooking grease. This is part of a city-wide effort to cut down the amount of grease that gets put into our sewers. The SFPUC says grease costs the utilities commission more than $3.5 million a year to unclog the pipes.

Here in the Richmond, the closest drop-off point for your grease is:

Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Recycling Center (HANC)
755 Frederick St. (at Arguello Blvd.); southwest end of Kezar stadium
Hours: Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday Noon to 4 p.m. Phone: 415-753-2971

San Francisco Whole Foods markets will also recycle your grease on specific Fridays every month. Find out more

New to world of grease recycling? Learn how to collect grease in your kitchen and get tips for making a drop-off.

Check out the short video below from the SFPUC on the grease recycling program or visit the program’s website at sfgreasecycle.org (includes a cute, greasy sound effect).

Sarah B.