Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Trash becomes benches at Border Field State Park

Effort to build new entry organized by 4 Walls International

Two volunteers stand with Waylon Matson and Steven Wright (3rd and 4th from left) of 4 Walls International. Soda-bottle-filled bench bases on the left.
Two volunteers stand with Waylon Matson and Steven Wright (3rd and 4th from left) of 4 Walls International. Soda-bottle-filled bench bases on the left.

Around 150 volunteers removed trash — and helped build the trash-based entrance — at Border Field State Park on Saturday, October 12. Over a ton and a half of refuse and 130 tires were pulled out of Goat Canyon, just inside the park entrance.

A bi-national group called 4Walls International, which reuses soda bottles and tires as fill for inexpensive and livable structures, worked with volunteers on the redesigned entry to the park, building the cores of benches with plastic bottles full of trash.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Steven Wright and Waylon Matson led a crew that added the layers on top of foundations they'd prepared earlier in the week. Wright and Matson said they paid kids from Los Laureles Canyon five pesos for each bottle full of trash, creating and incentivizing their own private Tijuana CRV program while they recycled the materials.

"These guys [4 Walls International] are really committed to the idea of finding a use for plastics and tires that would otherwise end up in a landfill," said Roderick Michener, a Surfrider Foundation board member who participated. "It's good material: the same thing that makes it bad for our oceans — that it doesn't break down — makes it great for construction."

When the work is completed, the soda bottles will be completely coated in stucco and will not be visible.

Inside the park, volunteers gathered by Surfrider, WiLDCOAST, and from La Jolla High School and Southwestern College hauled out plastics, tires, and every kind of trash one can imagine. While much of the trash originated in Mexico, in the impoverished Los Laureles Canyon, Michener said that most of the tires were from the U.S.

"We followed the used-tire trail and found that most of the ones we pick up are tires we paid a recycling fee to have properly disposed of but that ended up in Mexico," Michener said. "They weren't useful for long and they weren't properly disposed of and they ended up back in the U.S., where they started."

The three-hour effort wrapped up Tijuana River Valley Action Month, a series of events where hundreds of volunteers took part in the removal of five tons of trash and worked on plant restorations throughout the river valley.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Hike off those holiday calories, Poinsettias are peaking

Winter Solstice is here and what is winter?
Two volunteers stand with Waylon Matson and Steven Wright (3rd and 4th from left) of 4 Walls International. Soda-bottle-filled bench bases on the left.
Two volunteers stand with Waylon Matson and Steven Wright (3rd and 4th from left) of 4 Walls International. Soda-bottle-filled bench bases on the left.

Around 150 volunteers removed trash — and helped build the trash-based entrance — at Border Field State Park on Saturday, October 12. Over a ton and a half of refuse and 130 tires were pulled out of Goat Canyon, just inside the park entrance.

A bi-national group called 4Walls International, which reuses soda bottles and tires as fill for inexpensive and livable structures, worked with volunteers on the redesigned entry to the park, building the cores of benches with plastic bottles full of trash.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Steven Wright and Waylon Matson led a crew that added the layers on top of foundations they'd prepared earlier in the week. Wright and Matson said they paid kids from Los Laureles Canyon five pesos for each bottle full of trash, creating and incentivizing their own private Tijuana CRV program while they recycled the materials.

"These guys [4 Walls International] are really committed to the idea of finding a use for plastics and tires that would otherwise end up in a landfill," said Roderick Michener, a Surfrider Foundation board member who participated. "It's good material: the same thing that makes it bad for our oceans — that it doesn't break down — makes it great for construction."

When the work is completed, the soda bottles will be completely coated in stucco and will not be visible.

Inside the park, volunteers gathered by Surfrider, WiLDCOAST, and from La Jolla High School and Southwestern College hauled out plastics, tires, and every kind of trash one can imagine. While much of the trash originated in Mexico, in the impoverished Los Laureles Canyon, Michener said that most of the tires were from the U.S.

"We followed the used-tire trail and found that most of the ones we pick up are tires we paid a recycling fee to have properly disposed of but that ended up in Mexico," Michener said. "They weren't useful for long and they weren't properly disposed of and they ended up back in the U.S., where they started."

The three-hour effort wrapped up Tijuana River Valley Action Month, a series of events where hundreds of volunteers took part in the removal of five tons of trash and worked on plant restorations throughout the river valley.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Born & Raised offers a less decadent Holiday Punch

Cognac serves to lighten the mood
Next Article

Big kited bluefin on the Red Rooster III

Lake fishing heating up as the weather cools
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader