Isla Vista move-in event will help students learn about sustainable living plans

ISLA VISTA, Calif. – With the return of students to Isla Vista for the start of the next school year at UC Santa Barbara comes a chance to educate them about sustainable living.

With that, some of the usable items left over from the move out in June will now be going up for sale.

The Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) says the Move-In Market on September 17 and 18 offers residents a chance to buy affordable, secondhand items collected about two months ago.

The IVCSD is also preparing an educational and resource campaign, and focuses on waste reduction and sustainable practices.

The non-profit group Earthcomb is also working with IVCSD providing year-round services like free unwanted item pickup and resources to assist residents in proper waste sorting for effective recycling.

In June, Earthcomb diverted 37,000 lbs of litter through daily street cleaning for one month.

The work was done with Earthcomb's unique employment approach providing paid opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Earthcombe Founder Andrew Velikanje says his goal is to stop waste from "getting anything that is going to be in the drain grids and headed towards the ocean. "

With a new agreement Earthcombe is going tyo be coming through Isla Vista weekly. Already they have picked up, "lots of beer cans, lots of beer bottles, lots of broken glass," said Velikanje.

The effort to reuse and not discard useable items is a lifestyle change that community leaders hope the residents embrace.

Isla Vista Community Spaces Program Manager Myah Mashhadialireza says she want to see a  circular economy. "We don't just want to waste waste waste, throw it away, throw it in the landfill . We want people to think how can we reuse this item,  how can we give this to our neighbor."

Jenna Norton with Isla Vista Beautiful said, "what we want to do is start at the very beginning of the year and  instill these habits in those who live here and we are creating less waste year round that will lead  to a genuinely  less wasteful move out."

Already Isla Vista is starting to fill up with thousands of Santa Barbara City College Students.  The big increase will come in the next week and a half when the UC Santa Barbara students start to arrive.

Abigail Strawn is a student now living in Isla Vista for the first time. "I definitely think it's good that initiatives like this are happening," she said. "It's important because it's a bunch of young people living here and like we need to  learn this stuff young." She says recycling and keeping their area clean is a goal around her apartment complex.

She was also impressed with the upcoming discounted item sale that were not sold during the move out in June. That includes useable furniture for someone setting up an apartment.

(More details, photos and video will be added here later today)

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