Each Orange Countian Challenged to Reduce Waste By 10 Percent

​Picture enough garbage to fill up the entire Rose Bowl, once every 45 days, and you'll have an idea how much trash Orange Countians generate daily. Today, the county Board of Supervisors and OC Waste & Recycling challenged the 3 million people here to reduce by 10 percent the up to 15 million pounds of solid waste they deposit into local landfills each day.

The Waste Free OC, Save Room for Tomorrow campaign kicked off this morning at Irvine's Frank R. Bowerman Landfill, where Janet Nguyen, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, Alisa Drakodaidis, deputy CEO of Orange County, and Mike Giancola, director of OC Waste & Recycling, led the charge to convince residents they should throw away fewer paper coffee cups, plastic bags, food waste and anything else that might wind up at the dump. More recycling was also encouraged.

To help meet individual goals, people were directed to the campaign's new website, WasteFreeOC.com, which offers tips, resources and easy ways to reduce waste. Residents can also sign up for the "10% in 2010 Challenge" on the site.