Be a Part of the Solution in Los Angeles and Southern California!

Robin Greenfield wearing all the trash he created in 30 days.
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Live in Los Angeles and greater area? Want to be a part of the solution?
Below is a list of local organizations, businesses, initiatives and activists to get involved with!

Zero Waste and Plastic Free

Zero-waste, refill, and bulk stores have popped up all over! We have comprehensive lists of locations for these shops here.

East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice – Zero Waste initiative 

Just Transition Alliance – LIFECYCLE OF PLASTICS WITH AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE LENS presentation

Heal the Bay – Website FB IG
Protect people’s health through science-based education, outreach, and policies on contaminated water and fish at beach, pier, offshore, and freshwater areas in Greater Los Angeles. Our ocean and watersheds should be teeming with diverse wildlife, not inundated with plastic waste and micro-plastics; they strive to eliminate single-use plastic to defend the vibrancy of communities.

Plastic Pollution Coalition – Website IG FB Contact/Email
Plastic Pollution Coalition is a growing global alliance of more than 1,200 organizations, businesses, and thought leaders in 75 countries working toward a more just, equitable world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, waterways, the ocean, and the environment.

 

Circular Systems

Suay WebsiteIG
dedicated to design, coupled with a drive for activism, Suay is putting reclaimed products at the center of a social, economic and environmental revolution. Check out their Community Dye Bath program, Free Clothes rack, and re-made collections!

LA Compost – Website IG
LA Compost follows a model of decentralized community compost hubs -cared for, maintained and enjoyed by activated community members. Their objectives are to make food scrap collection, compost creation, and compost education accessible by developing a community-based model to keep the valuable resource of organics local, especially in LA County’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

Program activities include building community compost hubs for local residents, building regional compost hubs for small businesses, and educational programming ranging from municipality-funded classroom workshops to farmers market tabling, garden demonstrations, and community turn days.

LASAN Home Composting and Urban Gardening Workshops
Regularly scheduled two-hour workshops. The first half of each workshop will teaches how to turn kitchen scraps and yard trimmings into a nutrient-rich soil amendment, the second half focuses on the monthly urban gardening topic. Members of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will be there to offer water conservation tips and rebate information.

WHERE TO COMPOST: CALIFORNIAList of program/orgs/services that offer composting throughout CA.

FixIt Clinics
conveys basic disassembly, troubleshooting, and repair skills using peoples’ own broken things as the vehicle. By sharing these skills while transferring them to others they teach critical thinking through the lens of our relationship to consumption and sustainability. They strive to demystify science and technology so that we can ultimately make better policy choices as a society.

Fixit Clinic Locations

Outside if SoCal:

Homeboy Electronic Recycling – Website IG
certified and award-winning social enterprise offering nationwide service for the proper disposal and management of your IT assets. Offer ‘Industry Solutions’ for high waste sectors including Defense, Government, Healthcare, and Media.

 

Community Action: Beautification and Restoration

Communities for a Better Future
Builds people’s power in California’s communities of color and low income communities to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy and sustainable communities and environments. Provides residents in heavily polluted urban communities in California with organizing skills, leadership training and legal, scientific and technical assistance, so that they can successfully confront threats to their health and well-being.

Hollywood/Los Angeles Beautification Team (HBT/LABT)
Serving the greater Los Angeles community by planting trees, designing and implementing resource conservation projects, and improving school campuses, neighborhoods and business districts. They achieve this through environmental improvement efforts, job training for at risk youth and environmental education for youth and communities.

California Greenworks Inc. (FB IG) – “Greening Communities one Neighborhood at a Time”
Helps grow environmental outreach and educational programs that improve the quality of life in neighborhoods through programs and projects which advocate open space preservation in urban communities, restoration of waterways, and community beautification activities and other efforts that promote sustainable practices.

The Bay Foundation (FB IG)
Nearly two million people live in the Santa Monica Bay Watershed stretching from Ventura County to Palos Verdes, from the Santa Monica Mountains and Griffith Park to Baldwin Hills and out to the sea—and more than 5,000 species of animals, fish, birds, and plants make their home in the Bay and the Bay Watershed. Their mission is to restore and enhance Santa Monica Bay through actions and partnerships that improve water quality, conserve and rehabilitate natural resources, and protect the Bay’s benefits and values

Tree People (FB IG)
Inspired, engaged, and supported more than 3 million people to take action for our environment by planting and caring for trees in forests, mountains, parks, and our neighborhoods. Their unique, engaging, and proven model empowers communities to plant a more resilient future and take personal responsibility for greening their neighborhoods. Through our on-the-ground research and educational programs, TreePeople shares knowledge with policymakers, students and educators, and communities around the world.

The Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy  (IG FB)
Preserves land and restores habitat in and around the San Gabriel and Crescenta Valleys, thereby protecting natural areas for birds and wildlife and providing access and educational experiences for the community. We work with urgency to save these precious places before they are gone.

 

Education, Skills, and Community Engagement

Kiss the Ground – Education, Inspiration, Grassroots Activism
Mission is to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration and inspire participation in this movement through media, communications, education, workshops, immersive programming, and advocacy. They educate existing and emerging leaders about that solutions that lie within the soil and train them to be influential advocates in their communities, in their businesses and to drive structural change towards regeneration through grassroots action

Grades of Green – Education & Curriculum, Youth and Teachers
Goal is to educate, empower, and inspire students to take action and achieve long lasting environmental impact in their schools and communities today, while developing the skills to lead future environmental change. Free to all students, educators, and schools.

Climate Resolve (FB IG)– Community Resilience, Political/Policy Influence 
Building collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions for a just and resilient future by connecting communities, organizations and policymakers to address a global problem with local action.

Pacoima Beautiful – Climate Justice, Community Building/Outreach, Environmental Health Awareness
Founded in 1996 by five relentless mothers who became distraught by the unpleasant sight of trash and toxic smells they endured while walking their young children to school. They knew that the only way to create a safer and cleaner community for their children and neighbors was through collective action. The beautification projects of our founding mothers set the grassroots foundation that our historically women led organization has stood by for the past 25 years.

The Los Angeles Community Garden Council (LACGC)  (IG FB )– Support for Community Gardens
Mission is to strengthen communities by building and supporting community gardens where every person in Los Angeles County can grow healthy food in their neighborhood. This network fosters the meeting of people from diverse backgrounds to share experience and knowledge, promote urban agriculture and economic justice, provide leadership and job training, and grow more beautiful and sustainable communities.

They take care of the business side of gardening and give you more time to get dirty in the garden! Offers gardening advice and workshops to more than 125 community gardens in LA County.

Climate Cents – Economic Distribution, Local Initiatives and Impacts
Crowdfunding projects that reduce CO2 in LA where people can propose projects, volunteer, and donate.

 

More Resources

LA Almenac of Environmental Organizations

LA Zero Waste Resource Guide – PROGRAMS, GROCERY STORES, RESTAURANTS, EVENTS, COMPOST DROP OFF SITES

 

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