Solana Center for Environmental Innovation

Great organization! Solana Center provides classes throughout San Diego County for the community regarding composting, gardening, sustainability, rainwater harvesting and other pertinent topics. They have a great staff that is always willing to help (either through the call-​in «rot-​line» help desk, or drop in questions). If you want to get started composting, they offer discounted compost bin systems (for standard composting or vermi-​composting (red worms)). Great staff, great people, great topics, great classes … an all round great group!

This is a non-​profit organization promoting composting. They are open Tues and Thurs from 8:30−4 and sell composters, both the standard kind for yard waste and vermi-​composters for kitchen/​food waste at subsidized rates for residents of Encinitas and neighboring towns (see their website). I bought both types today for a steal at only $ 40 each and met a super friendly and helpful guy named Mike. He told me they do free composting seminars and gave me a flyer with dates and locations (see my photo). All in all a great experience and I wanted to spread the word.
Note: they are a bit hard to find, from El Camino Real turn east onto Via Molena (towards the Sheriff station) and continue past the recycling bins all the way to the end of the driveway

This Center began in 1983 and formerly called Solana Recyclers, helped to develop the first comprehensive curbside recycling program in San Diego County and in fact all of California. Funded by grants and community donations and with help from numerous volunteers, The Solana Center strives to inspire community members to recycle and reuse to make our world a better place.
The Center is also involved in forest preservation projects, pollution prevention projects and the very prevalent issue of global warming by designing plans that promote sustainable energy usage. They hold education seminars and classes and offer environmental education to schools and organizations.
They sponsor a program called S.E.A.L. that stands for Student Environmental Action and Leadership which empowers students and believe it or not at-​risk-​teens to be environmental mentors to younger kids.
You can buy affordable composting bins here as well. Check them out on the Web for more info: