Local group pushes recycling, conservation

Jean Martinez Welles explains to Ingrid Patten, 10, about the items that are cooking in her solar oven. The oven was one of a couple of features at the annual Gallup Recycles Day at the Rainbow Recycling Center. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Diné Bureau

GALLUP — They waited nearly three hours, so when Jean Welles opened the solar oven to check on the food, several people gathered.

“Is it almost done?” Genevieve Barriga asked as Welles opened the pot of jambalaya made with turkey sausage, shrimp, tomato sauce and herbs and spices.

People were curious to find out how the food that was made in the solar oven tasted.

“Is it hot?” Ingrid Patten asked Genevieve as she took a bite of the jambalaya.

The conclusion?

“It’s good! Oh, hot! It’s hot. It tastes good though.”
After Genevieve took the first bite, others began trying samples of the steaming hot jambalaya and the baked apple dessert that were cooking all day as part of her demonstration at the Gallup Recycles! Day at Rainbow Recycling.

The University of New Mexico created the solar oven with a grant from the Center for Disease Control and the UNM-Gallup Diabetes Project. It was one of the most popular exhibits at the event as people questioned Welles about how to use it.

Patten, who was there with her mother selling cinnamon rolls made with natural ingredients, helped Welles throughout the day.

“I think it’s really neat and it makes really good food,” she said about the solar oven.

Earlier in the day, Welles had given Patten reflective material to make a parabolic oven. Patten said she planned to make a solar oven for her Girl Scout troop and for a science project.

The recycling day has been an annual event for Gallup for at least 12 years. The intent is to get people to recycle more and to create awareness about the impact that we have on the planet, Betsy Windisch, co-chair of McKinley Citizens’ Recycling Council, said.

“Recycling saves a lot of energy and most people don’t realize it,” Windisch said.

Rainbow Recycling, adjacent to the Larry Brian Mitchell Recreation Center, accepts glass, aluminum cans, tin and steel cans, corrugated cardboard and plastic. Rainbow Recycling is only a drop off point. If people want to get money for their items, Betsy directs them to Gallup Camper Sales.

The only place in Gallup to recycle glass however is at Rainbow Recycling. Since it started accepting glass two years ago, the tipping fees that the city must pay for waste disposal have decreased dramatically, Betsy said.

Recycling benefits the entire community, she said. She noted that many people would like to see a curbside program for recycling but such a program needs the support of the city of Gallup and the county.

As soon as Mary Patten moved to Gallup a year and a half ago, she began seeking out opportunities to get involved in recycling efforts.

“We’re here because we have five children, and I want our children to be involved in recycling and learning about the environment,” she said.

The Patten family recycles aluminum, plastic, newspapers, loose paper and cardboard.

Elizabeth Barriga with the city of Gallup has many suggestions for conserving water that would be unnoticeable for many people.

Barriga was giving out free water conservation kits that contained water saving indoor devices like the faucet sink aerator, toilet tank bank, toilet fill cycle diverter, leak detection dye tablets and showerheads. The kits are available to Gallup residents at Gallup Joint Utilities.

“We’ve had water shortages in the past,” Barriga said.
She added that it is cheaper to take water-saving measures than for the city to spend millions of dollars on water development.

In addition to the informational exhibits and presentations, the MCRC handed out its annual awards of merit to Linda Ohle of Miyamura High School and Karl Lohmann.

Lohmann came to Gallup in 1973 as a teacher at Washington Elementary. He retired in 1999 after more than 25,000 hours in the classroom.

Lohmann was the team captain for the Tree Amigos project — planting trees on the north side of Gallup. He also planted 900 seedlings on the west side of the new Gallup High School with the help of the National Honor Society.

He has also been the volunteer coordinator of the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful — Gallup Neighborhoods Attack Trash since 1995 and the director of McKinley County and Gallup Youth Conservation Corps since 2001. He currently works at Connections, Inc. and is the director of the Gallup Boys and Girls Club.

Ohle has taught at Gallup Junior High School, Gallup Middle School and is currently a career counselor at Miyamura High School. During her time as an educator, she has helped to bring more awareness to recycling to her pupils.

In 2000 she ran a reuse recycling contest where her students created objects from recycled materials. In 2001 she started an after-school science club which focused on recycling and campus cleanliness. In 2003 she began working with the Leo’s Club, the youth component of the Lion’s Club, where she got the pupils involved in recycling contests and community clean up day.

Information: Betsy Windisch at 722-9257.