Aged or obsolete electronics should not be thrown away along with your normal garbage. Most electronics contain hazardous substances such as mercury or other heavy metals like lead or arsenic. These compounds, if introduced to municipal waste streams, can cause contamination of groundwater and soils. For more information on the hazards of electronic equipment, go to the EPA’s website.

By replacing conventional lawns and gardens and cutting back on the use of exotic water-intensive decorative plants, native landscaping reduces water use and weekly maintenance (usually done with gas-powered, polluting equipment and noisy leaf blowers), cuts the use of synthetic fertilizers, and reinforces the natural beauty of the native California landscape.

On bicycle boulevards such as the one in Palo Alto along Bryant Street, the use of traffic calming devices like chokers and diverters eliminates most auto traffic while permitting bicycle and pedestrian through traffic. The result is significantly reduced auto traffic and much higher bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

Bottom Line: Experts from all branches of science meet monthly to discuss a wide variety of topics with interested community members at SRI International in Menlo Park.

When Roger Whiting and Nancy Peterson founded Café Scientifique Silicon Valley in 2004, science cafés were nearly unheard of in the U.S. For its first event, Café Scientifique invited Stanford physicist and Nobel Laureate Doug Osheroff to discuss "The Columbia Accident Investigation and the Future of Human Space Flight.”

Bottom Line: The City of San Mateo and Shelter Network team up to renovate a city-owned single occupancy hotel to help get chronically homeless people off the street.

In 2007, the City of San Mateo and Shelter Network, launched a new program to help meet the needs of the chronically homeless population in the city (those who typically do not benefit from traditional shelter services due to multiple barriers including mental health or addiction). The centerpiece of the program is the newly rehabilitated Vendome Hotel. This single-occupancy hotel, owned by the City of San Mateo, was renovated with the help of local community members and businesses, and is now operated by the Shelter Network.

Bottom Line: City governments make it easy for residents and businesses to stop the flow of junk mail to our mailboxes.

Junk Mail is a big problem. We all get it, and 9 times out of 10, that piece of junk mail goes right to the recycle bin. Every year about 42 billion pieces of unsolicited mail are sent to unwilling recipients in the US. This plethora of unwanted mail has immense costs. It robs our forests of over 100 million trees every year. Then it costs us $320 million annually nationwide to dispose of it all. According to San Francisco Department of the Environment’s calculations, it costs each American about 234 minutes a year to sort through the junk.

Bottom Line: Building a disaster preparedness kit for your home or business is a fast and easy way to get better prepared for an earthquake, fire, or other natural disaster.

Living in earthquake country means that the next potential natural disaster is only a moment away. Assembling a kit that has at least three days of food, water, and supplies for every family member is one part of being ready. In a large disaster, it is likely emergency personnel will be overwhelmed with duties and unable to help everyone immediately.

It’s been said that you can measure the compassion of a community by the way it cares for its elderly. Two non-profit organizations on the San Mateo Coast address those needs by providing seniors with health care, camaraderie, education and a hot lunch every day.

Have you got a fireplace? Do you know what effect wood smoke has on our air quality? Do you know who’s most at risk to poor air quality?

Have you ever wondered how your garden might look if you switched to native species -- less care and water needed – or what it would take to compost your own mulch for soil amendment? How do you start thinking about these things? Who can help?

The "SMC Ready" program is part of the County’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) which is funded through a Joint Powers Agreement between the 20 incorporated cities and the County of San Mateo. The SMC Ready program has a great website that provides tips and resources for businesses, households and communities in the event of an emergency.

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors recently made a joint statement: "There is no excuse for domestic violence. If you know of someone who is currently in an abusive relationship, please share this information with him or her. You may save a life."

Select a shop that uses water based paints and complies with all rules and regulations put out by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the California Air Resources Board. In general, California imposes controls on the amount of VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) released into the air from the paints and solvents. The shop should also be using enclosed spray booths, as well as HVLP spray guns and reusable filters.

Belmont's Cipriani After-School Care [CASC] is a very special organization that has grown markedly and received many awards since it began in 1994. It started when Karen Haas-Foletta bid on the on-site child care program at Belmont's Cipriani Elementary School, which was reopening after a 10 year closure.

Austin Mader-Clark, an avid walker, cyclist, airplane pilot and passionate advocate for alternative, non-petroleum-based fuels, challenges others to "fill their tank and save the world" with her innovative new approach to making alternative fuel available in a centralized and convenient location. On Earth Day 2008 she opened Autopia Biofuels located at 1025 South Railroad Avenue in downtown San Mateo.

There are many environmental education programs offered throughout San Mateo County. These incredible programs give students opportunities to observe natural ecosystems, engage in hands-on discovery activities, and receive knowledgeable scientific instruction. These valuable programs lead students to an appreciation of the natural world and an awareness of the importance of responsible environmental stewardship. There is a range of affordable or free environmental educational programs available for student groups, teachers, individuals, and families.

The San Mateo Community College District is a three-college district located between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The College of San Mateo, Canada College in Redwood City, and Skyline College in San Bruno serve more than 40,000 students each year and offer the first two years of instruction in a wide variety of 4-year college transfer programs as well as more than 90 vocational-technical programs.

Two consecutive record-dry winters throughout California have resulted in the greatest threat to our water supply in nearly 20 years, prompting the governor to declare a statewide drought. Reduce water consumption in your home. It is especially important to detect, fix and prevent leaks. If you rent, report leaks to your building manager or landlord. Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year!

In the US the average person uses about 150 gallon per day according to the United Nations 2008 Development Report Update. This is more than twice as much as the average person in Germany, about 8 times more than the average person in China. Note that "an American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than the typical person living in a developing country slum uses in a whole day [1]". The most recent measured data for San Mateo County show an average use of 87.1 gallon per day per person (gpd) [2], with significant differences between Water Districts, ranging from 267 gpd in Hillsborough to less than 50 gpd in South San Francisco. About 68% of the water in San Mateo County is consumed by residential use.

Local governments across the nation are prohibiting the use of non-recyclable plastics such as foamed polystyrene in takeout disposable food packaging because they are frustrated with the increasing amount of non-recyclable food packaging waste in our marine environment, streets, storm drains and landfills. Studies have shown that in the some areas of the Pacific plastic outweighs plankton by a factor of 46! Polystyrene is impractical to recycle due to its light weight, takes thousands of years to decompose and is the most common form of marine debris. Managing the debris costs local governments millions in storm drain clean up costs.