Striving for zero is never a goal in athletics, politics or dating; but for environmental concerns it’s a much different story.
The 2013 Canmore Folk Music Festival’s Towards Zero Waste Initiative”set lofty goals for this year’s event and surpassed expectations.
Since 2008, the festival has aimed to stay above the 80 per cent mark in diverting waste created from the event reaching landfills. A new benchmark was reached this year with an impressive 94 per cent diversion rate reached, due to the elimination of bottled water sales on site and from the efforts put forth by 52 Gang Green volunteers, community partners and attendees.
“It was an accumulation of the last few years of working towards it,” festival Gang Green coordinator Norman Neil said.
Neil says there were two major factors in reaching the hefty environmental goal, with both involving education and communication. “In March. I did a workshop on how to go green, and we had members from the Bow Valley Waste Commission and management from the Calgary folk fest come up and talk about what they did for waste reduction.”
The second factor involved giving festival attendees constant updates during the event on green goals being reached. “There was a constant buy-in from the public. MCs would make announcements and give updates on goals met, and people would cheer – people definitely bought into it.”
Keeping a thorough record and breakdown of waste materials generated also led to an easier time in keeping track of information and goals. “When we collected all the recycling, it was all separated and we also broke down what was generated at the pancake breakfast and from the other food stations.”
Other initiatives that helped in reaching the goal involved more education and cooperation with food vendors towards the elimination of Styrofoam plates and cups, along with a large amount of hard/soft plastic materials.
Neil says good old-fashioned competitiveness also helped in keeping morale up towards goals. “There was a bit of rivalry between groups about who could outdo the other in getting the higher numbers.”
Vendors utilized compostable dinnerware, along with the 450 event volunteers and performers.
Attendees continue to bring and use their own dinnerware and bottles for the event; and local recycling company Flying Pigs has volunteered its services over the past years towards transporting compost items to the Town’s recycling facility.
“We worked with the food vendors and got them on board. Before it was all throwaway packaging and now it’s renewable, along with the arts and crafts recycling,” Neil said.
“It’s the entire organization. We’re the face, but we want to add to public education. You get to have the opportunity to talk to people who ask, ‘Wait a minute, why does this item go in this bin?’ You get to have a conversation of why it goes in a certain bin and what will happen afterwards,” Neil said. “I want to get to 99 per cent.
“People look at me wild-eyed when I say that, but just look at how far we’ve come to get here.”
