The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. An emerging public awareness of air, water and land pollution led several individuals, including peace activist John McConnell, Arthur J. Hanson, former Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and many others, to organize the day after witnessing devastating damage to the environment and holding teach-ins at college campuses across the country.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 20 million Americans demonstrated in different cities on the first Earth Day to force the issue of little-to-no regulation to protect our environment. In December 1970, with support from President Nixon, Congress authorized the creation of the EPA.

Thanks to support from Council, for the last 21 years the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community has made it a priority to recognize Earth Day with annual events around the week that it falls on. 

This year, on April 12, a total of 173 cars and households participated in the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) event held at the SRPMIC Justice Center parking lot.

“The purpose and objective of the HHW is to encourage all SRPMIC households to properly dispose of and safely manage such waste,” said CDD-EPNR Senior Compliance Specialist Amy Miguel. “Many HHW items have labels and are regulated to be properly disposed of due to the type of waste and what the waste contains such as certain hazardous chemicals that do not belong in regular trash or on the ground.”

According to Miguel, common HHW within the Community can range from medical waste such as biohazard (sharps) containers, medications, used oil and antifreeze. The medical sharps and non-DEA (the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s scheduled drugs) medications are sent out of state for treatment and/or disposal. The used oil and used antifreeze are transported and recycled into new antifreeze and new petroleum products.

For the proper and safe transportation, management, and disposal of the waste was provided through Environmental Response, Inc. (ERI) and the paper shredding was provided by PD Shredding for recycling.

See side bar for a breakdown of HHW numbers:

HHW Item Breakdown

Pounds (lbs.) Safely Removed & Properly Disposed

• eWaste 500
• Flammable Aerosols 1000
• Corrosive Liquids (Acidic) 500
• Corrosive Liquids (Basic) 500
• Paint Related Materials 1000
• Flammable Liquids 850
• Pesticides (Liquid) 1000
• Pesticides (Solid) 500
• Medical Waste (Sharps) 300
• Non-DEA Medicine 300
• Refrigerators for Recycle 200
• Batteries (Wet, Filled with Acid) 550
• NiCad Batteries 720
• Li-Ion Batteries 60
• Incandescent Bulbs 60
• Fluorescent Tubes 480
• Used Oil 3000
• Used Antifreeze 400
• Latex Paint 3000
• Propane Cylinders 105

TOTAL POUNDS: 15,065

TOTAL TONS: 7.5

33 tires safely removed and properly disposed.

5,160 lbs. (2.6 tons) of paper shredded for recycling.

While the HHW event was going on, across the Community at the Accelerated Learning Academy was the Earth Day Environmental Fair. This was just the second time that the event has been held at ALA since 2009. Miguel said that a total of 479 people participated in the fair, which included 47 exhibits focused on Earth Day and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) that encouraged the participants to think about how we can better care for the planet.

In addition to several Community departments offering information to Community members, tables were populated by organizations such as the S’edav Va’aki Museum, Native Seeds/SEARCH and Logan Simpson.

Round House Café staff, who began their day at 3 a.m. preparing food, served meals to hungry attendees. A Community member-owned food vendor, Tweety’s Frybread, provided another tasty option. And of course, there was plenty of candy to go around at the booths.

Miguel said that this event and its previous events have been made possible through the collaboration of multiple Community departments. Several teams that helped CDD/EPNR and kept the school grounds safe included the ALA Security team, Emergency Management and First Aid/First Responder teams.

Funding for the biannual HHW events in April and October including the Earth Day and upcoming Fall Overhaul events are provided by various and generous enterprises and organizations such as Salt River Landfill, the US EPA’s Tribal Pesticides Programs, and Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP).

“A special kudos is extended to the ALA’s Security team for their tremendous support and cheering the planning team on in getting the small and big items ready for the event; as well as the Public Works Department for event set up and tear down and for creating the fun and popular obstacle course,” said Miguel.