The Tahoe-Truckee Earth Day ‘Zero Waste Project’ committee was pleased to report a 93 percent diversion rate of the waste generated at this year’s event. Not quite ‘zero waste’ but darn near!
Held Saturday, April 26, 2008 at the Village at Squaw Valley, the event recorded more than 5,000 attendees. Attendees deposited a total of 762 pounds of materials at five ‘zero waste stations’ placed throughout the event venue. A team of more than 20 dedicated volunteers staffed these stations throughout the day, providing collection support and educating the public on what was recyclable, what was compostable and what items were destined for the landfill.
From the total collected: 526 pounds of mixed recyclable material (70 percent); 180 pounds of compostable materials (23 percent); and a mere 56 pounds (7 percent) of trash were sorted and segregated.
The recycling was sent for processing to Placer County’s Cabin Creek Materials Reclamation facility. The compostable cups, plates, utensils and food waste from the event were transported by IVGID Waste Not, to Full Circle Composting in Minden, Nevada.
In the next few months, these materials will be turned into high quality compost at Full Circle’s state of the art facility. Once processed, the compost generated from the event’s waste will be returned to the Tahoe Basin in the form of soil amendment for the Lake Tahoe Demonstration garden in Incline Village, Nevada.
The zero waste stations also featured a free, ‘Guess the Waste Weight’ Contest. Bryce Raney of Tahoe City was the winner of a case of blue bags with his guess of 742 pounds total of the materials collected.
For more info, contact Madonna Dunbar, 775-832-1212 direct / 775-354-5086 cell, madonna_dunbar@ivgid.org.
