El Paso Zoo Launches “Drop it in the Blue, Sunny!"

(Sunny the sea lion giving a high-five to Bill, one of his trainers)

On February 6th, The El Paso Zoo officially launched the new Sea Lion Recycling Program with our Partners in Education; The El Paso Zoo, Keep El Paso Beautiful, & the City of El Paso Environmental Services. At the El Paso Zoo’s “World of the Sea Lion” Amphitheatre, Sunny the sea lion demonstrated a new part of his daily presentation by tossing a recyclable plastic bottle in the City of El Paso’s Blue recycle bin to help educate El Paso Zoo visitors about the need to recycle to save our planet and the ocean waters that sea lions swim in.

(El Paso Zoo Partner in Education: Keep El Paso Beautiful. Executive Director, Katherine Palafox speaks about the importance of recycling.)






(Partner in Education: City Of El Paso Environmental Services. Director, Ellen Smythe discusses the City’s Blue Recycling Program and its success.)






(El Paso Zoo spokesperson, Liz Kern talking about the new “Drop it in the Blue, Sunny” Recycling program and its goals of educating children and adults.)






Program: We’d like to thank you for coming out today for the Launch of the New Sea Lion Recycling Program with our Partners in Education; The City of El Paso Environmental Services and Keep El Paso Beautiful. We are all involved in educating El Pasoans about the importance of recycling, and since we have over 100,000 children visiting the Zoo every year – what better a location than the El Paso Zoo to teach kids and their parents about dropping plastic bottles and recyclables into the City of El Paso’s blue recycling bins.

Educating the future generations is at the forefront of the El Paso Zoo’s priorities. We are highly involved with the conservation of rapidly disappearing animal species, many of which are now being affected by environmental and ecological changes globally.

The El Paso Zoo is becoming THE place to learn about all aspects of conservation with the soon-to-open El Paso Water Utilities Discovery Education Center that will focus on water conservation and our desert, and the El Paso Electric Renewable Energy Demonstration Project Windows to the Wild Outpost which will feature solar energy and a wind turbine.

With events like Party for the Planet: An Earth Day Celebration on April 19th, we hope that people will see the El Paso Zoo as the best place to learn about their planet’s different ecological systems, how we are all connected, and our responsibilities to our planet.



And now, one of the El Paso Zoo’s most popular animals; Sunny, the sea lion, will be spreading the message about the importance of recycling. Everyday, bottles and trash get tossed in the Rio Grande and some of that ultimately ends up in the ocean, polluting it and affecting wildlife – including Sunny’s sea lion friends. So, through this new program, Sunny is teaching kids that what we do here in El Paso can have an effect on our ocean even though it’s hundreds of miles away.



(map: www.worldatlas.com)



(Zoo Keeper Billie, Sunny dropping a plastic bottle into the City’s Blue Recycle Bin)

Recycling is so Easy - Even a Sea Lion can do it.
Just Drop it in the Blue, Sunny!