Three Rivers Arts Festival Greens its Waste Stream

I just got back from lunch at the Three Rivers Arts Festival and much of it is the same as it always is: vendors similar to what I’ve seen in the past several years are selling art that’s similar to what I’ve seen in previous years, flanked by food booths similar to what I’ve seen in previous years. The big change at the Arts Festival this year is how they are handling the waste generated through the sale of food. In past years, recycling has been either nonexistent or spottily enforced, resulting in comingled waste streams: it didn’t matter what the bins were labeled, they likely contained preety much the same cross-mix of food, paper, cans, and bottles.

This year, there are three separate waste container areas: composting, recycling, and trash; trash by far represents the smallest percentage. In order to ensure that the waste streams are being treated properly, begloved volunteers monitor festival-goers as they dispose of their waste and rifle through the bags to police their contents. In other words, they’re making certain that the recycling bags are recyclable and the compost bags are compostable.

The breadth of what is being composted is quite impressive: all food waste, both from inside and outside the festival; paper products, including waxed; the corn-based plastic flatware being distributed at festival food booths; corn-based plastic cups (recycling number 7). Doesn’t leave much in the category of ‘trash’; those bags were practically empty even as the other categories filled.

The composting stream is being handled by Indianola-based Agrecycle, Inc. (no website available). They have picked up one load of compost from the Arts Festival and are processing it today: grinding it to reduce the particle size and putting it into one of the composting windrows at their Washington County composting site.

It’s thrilling to see that the Arts Festival is doing so well with making certain that the waste inevitably generated by feeding so many people in an open air market is being handled in as sustainable a manner as possible: until everyone starts carrying their own napkins and cups, strictly enforced public composting and recycling is a beautiful sight, indeed.

5 Responses to “Three Rivers Arts Festival Greens its Waste Stream”

  1. Donald L. Gibbon Says:

    I’m delighted with this report and just wanted to add that our remarkable Phipps Conservatory has made similar commitments to totally biodegradable plates, cups and cutlery at the Conservatory and the Garden Center.

    If you’re not yet aware of it, the Phipps is in the process of creating the world’s first “living building” which will be totally disconnected from utilities. It will provide its own electricity, waste water treatment, water supply, heat and cooling from within its property. The innovations being put in place stand to make Pittsburgh a world center for “green” building technology. It is all being done by Pittsburgh institutions: architects, engineers, construction companies, manufacturers. This is a HUGE opportunity for Pittsburgh.

  2. Aurora Says:

    Don– If you’re interested in local green buildings, check out what Green Building Alliance is doing all over Western Pennsylvania to help great projects like Phipps’s Center for Sustainable Landscapes (which is pursuing the Living Building Challenge) minimize their impacts on the environment.

    http://www.gbapgh.org

  3. Aurora Says:

    Also, if you’re looking for help to manage your own waste streams, Pennsylvania Resources Council is an excellent resource.

    http://www.prc.org

  4. jim Says:

    This festival in Pittsburgh is doing the same thing that the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival (http://corduroyorange.com/?p=246). But I gather that the one in Pittsburgh is significantly larger than the total attendance of ~10,000 in Orange, MA.

  5. jwsharrard Says:

    Update from Carla Castagnero of Agrecycle: the first two loads collected from the Three Rivers Arts Festival were free of almost all contaminants: the only non-compostable item found by the processors were plastic water bottles, and they were found at a low enough concentration that they were able to remove them by hand, so all of the compost collected went into the windrows.

    Basically, the Arts Festival and their volunteers have done a great job!

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