This year, the Sustainability Alliance declared Earth Day Month. At least 35 different groups held Earth Day events in the Verde Valley during April involving well over 6,000 people.
Events ranged from the Yavapai/Apache/Camp Verde Earth Day Celebration to Sedona’s household hazardous waste collection which collected 8,770 pounds of hazardous waste and 17,237 pounds of electronics.
However, events can be bad for the environment if they generate a lot of waste. Leslie Fox, who leads the Sustainability Alliance’s Zero Waste Events program and runs the Yavapai Food Recovery Program, helped a number of the of the Earth Month events to radically reduce their waste. The industry definition of zero waste is a 90% diversion from landfill, and the events Fox supported exceeded that amount.
The Yavapai/Apache/Camp Verde Earth Day Celebration, which was the second annual joint event for both groups, was the most improved with 96% diversion.
Although exact figures from last year weren’t known, it was recalled that many dumpsters were filled and taken away.
This year, the event created only 2.5 pounds of garbage to put into the landfill, with a 96% diversion rate of what was rescued. This was accomplished by eliminating single-use disposable water bottles, notifying vendors that everything they brought with them they would need to take away and changing from a single stream waste/recycle removal system to a separation station to individually collect items for recycling, composting, upcycling or returning to items to vendors. Also, menus were changed to ensure minimal waste. At Taste of OLLI, the trash cans were removed from the room. Instead, a separation station was set up and the only items not collected were the packaging around the tea bags that is a cross of plastic and paper. That waste did not register on the scale, so this event had a 99.999% diversion rate.
Earth Day at La Ferme de Pomme Bleue had a 100% diversion. Blue Apple Farm in Cornville asked the participants to take away anything they brought with them. A food vendor brought compostable serviceware.
Anyone hosting an event who wants to reduce their environmental footprint is asked to contact ZeroWaste@SustainabilityAllianceAZ.org.
