This holiday season, Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) encourages consumers across the country to incorporate environmentally responsible practices into celebrations and family gatherings with five simple tips.

“The holiday season can be a hectic time of year for just about everyone,” said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling and sustainability at Republic Services. “Many of us want to be more sustainable during the holidays, but we aren’t sure how or we just don’t have the time. These five easy tips can help each of us to do our part to make environmentally responsible choices throughout the holiday season and help make a positive impact in our communities for generations to come.”

Republic’s Five Holiday Sustainability Tips:

1. When giving holiday gifts, commit to reusing laminated bags and recycling those made of paper.
2. Shipping gifts? Make shredded paper out of old newspapers and be sure to reuse last year’s bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts.
3. After opening gifts, remember to recycle the wrapping paper – even the shiny stuff – but save and reuse the ribbons and bows.
4. Getting a new device this holiday season? Make sure your old phone or tablet does not get tossed in with the recycling. Check with your local service provider on any special instructions or electronics recycling options.
5. Enjoy that holiday latte, just remember the paper cup, plastic lid and paper sleeve should be Empty, Clean & Dry before tossing them into the recycling container.

Click here to view Republic’s 2017 holiday recycling video.

With parties, decorations, gift giving and travel, Americans waste generation per household increases 25 percent, or almost 1,000 pounds of trash, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Remarkably, roughly 80 percent of what is thrown away during the holidays could be recycled or repurposed, according to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The most common non-recyclables contaminating the recycling waste stream during the holiday season include: bubble wrap, cellophane, string/rope, ribbons and bows, batteries, food, clothing, cell phones and Styrofoam and other forms of polystyrene foam.

Remember that when it comes to toy packaging, both the cardboard and the plastic are recyclable, but they must be separated from one another. That includes the plastic window on the box of a doll or action figure. Sticky gift tags are not recyclable by themselves, but they are acceptable if fixed to an envelope or wrapping paper.

Check with your local recycling and waste collection service provider or solid waste authority to confirm what items can be recycled curbside or through the community drop-off this season. Republic also recommends checking in advance on any changes to your holiday collection date or time and special instructions for disposing of Christmas trees.

About Republic Services

Republic Services, Inc. is an industry leader in U.S. recycling and non-hazardous solid waste disposal. Through its subsidiaries, Republic’s collection companies, recycling centers, transfer stations and landfills focus on providing effective solutions to make proper waste disposal effortless for its 14 million customers. We’ll handle it from here.^®, the brand’s promise, lets customers know they can count on Republic to provide a superior experience while fostering a sustainable Blue Planet for future generations to enjoy a cleaner, safer and healthier world.

For more information, visit the Republic Services website at RepublicServices.com. “Like” Republic on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RepublicServices and follow on Twitter @RepublicService.

Love-A-Child Missions is sponsoring its 32nd Annual Christmas Carnival for the less fortunate families of our community of Contra Costa County. During this event of compassion, the true meaning of Christmas is shared with an invitation to become a Christmas Miracle, this is a special time to share your love and support for the community.

Can your organization be part of this ethnically diversified outreach? Can you be those loving hands of support so desperately needed this Holiday Season? We can certainly use your help and support. This year we are soliciting organizations to be a part of this Christmas compassion event that will make Christmas brighter for the less fortunate families of our county. Below are the service opportunities for the day of the event. Please consider whether you’d like to provide a financial contribution for this event or host a toy or coat drive prior to the event.

Listed below are the different types of services that are needed:

EVENT OPPORTUNITIES:

Qualified Leadership & Supervision Prize & Raffle Distribution

Carnival Booths Activities Food/Lunch Preparation and Distribution

Music/DJ Photographer/Videographer

Security and Registration Services Food Bag Distribution

Face Painting Balloon Distribution

Toy Distribution Coat Distribution

Miscellaneous Labor

For further information, questions and/or concerns, please contact Courtney, Heather or Barbara at Love-A-Child Missions @ 925.458.9337 or 925.458.4496

Very truly yours

Jerome Knott – Founding Director

Love-A-Child Missions

National Award Places the Retirement Community Among Top 1 Percent of Providers on Premier Senior Living Consumer Ratings and Reviews Site, SeniorAdvisor.com

Quail Lodge Retirement Community, an all-inclusive independent living senior retirement community in Antioch, California, and managed by Sunshine Retirement Living, has received the prestigious 2018 Best of Senior Living Award from SeniorAdvisor.com, the largest ratings and reviews site for senior care and services in the United States and Canada. The award recognizes the best of the best of in-home care, assisted living and other senior living providers based on the online reviews written by seniors and their families.

Now in its fifth year, the awards program tabulates over 150,000 reviews to identify the highest quality care providers. To qualify for the award, care providers must have maintained an average overall rating of at least 4.5 stars while receiving four or more new reviews in 2017. Of the nearly 45,000 communities currently listed on SeniorAdvisor.com, just over 1,600 received the award.

“The Best of Senior Living award is especially meaningful as it represents real world, honest feedback from our valued residents and their families,” said Luis Serrano, CEO of Sunshine Retirement Living. “Our amazing team in Antioch truly exemplifies our company’s core values of People, Passion and Excellence, and have made Quail Lodge a wonderful home for our residents, providing comfort and compassion in a welcoming, safe and nurturing environment. We are so very proud of this honor and to be recognized in the top 1 percent of senior living providers.”

“As SeniorAdvisor.com’s ‘Best of Senior Living’ awards enters its fifth year of honoring the top family-rated communities and care providers, we are proud to say that the bar has been raised,” said Eric Seifert, president and COO of SeniorAdvisor.com. “In order to ensure only the best communities and care providers win, we decided to make the criteria harder than ever and we saw over 1,600 winners rise to the occasion. Each year we are more and more impressed with the quality of winners and look forward to spreading the word about these award-winning organizations.”

About Sunshine Retirement Living

Based in Bend, Ore., Sunshine Retirement Living manages 21 retirement communities in nine states, offering senior apartments, independent living, assisted living and memory care. A family-owned business with more than 20 years in the senior housing industry, Sunshine Retirement Living’s mission is to be the preferred senior living provider offering value, choice and independence while promoting health and social interaction that exceeds residents’ expectations and enriches the lives of both residents and staff. By providing meals, housekeeping, activities, transportation, utilities and in-house management staff, Sunshine Retirement Living continues to build an unparalleled community feeling in each property. For more information, visit www.SunshineRet.com or connect socially.

About SeniorAdvisor.com LLC

SeniorAdvisor.com is the largest consumer ratings and reviews site for senior living communities and home care providers across the United States and Canada with over 150,000 trusted, published reviews. The innovative website provides easy access to the information families need when making senior care decisions, and features reviews and advice from community residents and their loved ones. For more information, please visit www.senioradvisor.com or call (866) 592-8119.

Christmas gifts for foster children in Antioch schools from the Delta Realtors Community Service Foundation surround the tree at the Delta Association of Realtors Christmas lunch on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2017.

Joann Mass of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Oakley thanks DRCS Foundation Chairman Dan Barnes for the donation, as other foundation board members look on.

By Allen Payton

During the annual Delta Association of Realtors Christmas party, the organization’s Delta Realtors Community Service Foundation presented checks to East County charities and gifts for local, foster children in Antioch schools.

A check for $1,000 was donated to St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Oakley for their food pantry

“It all goes to some really nice, nice families,” said Joann Mass of St. Anthony’s. “All we can do is say thank you.”

Donations were also provided to the Antioch Senior Center, An Elderly Wish Foundation, Don Brown Shelter, Brentwood Community Chest, and the Golden Hills Community Church Community Outreach Center in Antioch.

The Christmas gifts were provided to Antioch Unified School District’s Student Support Services for “27 foster children who are Antioch school students living in five group homes, four in Antioch and one in Pittsburg,” said Mayra Preciado, Counselor and Foster Liaison. “They’re now receiving a Christmas.”

She was joined by Director Bob Sanchez, Homeless Liaison Trina Tuel and Intervention Services Coordinator Dineen Burdick.

“We keep the money local. That’s what we’ve been focusing on” said Realtors foundation chairman Dan Barnes, of the Berkshire Hathaway real estate office in Brentwood.

The other foundation board members are Leonard Briones, Laura Agdanowski, Anthony Silva, Cathleen Griebling, Patti Shaner and Margaret Hurtado.

For more information about the Delta Association of Realtors visit their website at www.deltaaor.com.

The Antioch Police Department is happy to announce their fourth Annual Holiday Food Drive with the support of White Pony Express. As in the previous years, they will be providing a bag with all of the fixings for a Holiday Meal.

Actor Zack Gold is the main character in the movie Psycho Brother-In-Law filmed in Antioch last summer.

Some of the scenes were filmed at Antioch High School with staff member Trine Gallegos (far right) included. Herald file photo

By Allen Payton

According to Supervising Producer Kris Wynn, the movie filmed in Antioch last summer, will air on the Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) next Thursday, December 28. It’s entitled Psycho Brother-In-Law and includes Antioch and East County residents as extras. (See related articles, here and here.)

It’s the second movie to be filmed in Antioch in as many years.

According to the Lifetime website, the movie stars Brittany Falardeau, Zack Gold, Mike Duff, Megan Ashley Brown and Samantha Bowling.

The description reads, “Kate is so thankful to have her brother-in-law David back in her family’s life as he’s been a blessing around the house while her husband spends long days at the office. But when his behavior starts getting out of line, Kate realizes that David wants to be the new head of the family, and will do anything to make that happen.”

So grab, the remote and popcorn, order some pizza and watch your local friends or family members on the small screen to see who made it past the cutting room floor!