THE CARE AND FEEDING OF A ZERO WASTE EVENT

Hello PCG Sierra Club Horsetooth Half Marathon Volunteers and thank you for working with us on this important event. Please read this information and take a copy with you to your Zero Waste Station.

Some history: last year, PCG teamed up with Green Events and Gallegos Sanitation Inc. to render local foot races as close to Zero Waste as possible. For the most part, this consisted of staffing a number of Zero Waste stations and focusing on composting and recycling while limiting landfill-bound trash. The events were very successful in all regards: raising public recycling/composting consciousness, diverting hundreds of pounds of discarded material from the landfill, and raising a good sum of money for PCG while publicly demonstrating our commitment to a clean environment.

How it works: You will staff a Zero Waste station that will have three separate receptacles: one each for composting, recycling and landfill-bound waste. Your objective is to maximize on composting and recycling, hold other waste to a serious minimum.

Recycle:

·       Narrow-neck bottles and their caps.

·       Wide-mouth containers.

·       Paper – including newspaper, paper bags, cardboard, non-waxy paper or cardboard

·       Glass – all bottles and jars (If necessary, sling residue in the compost bin before depositing.) Avoid breakage

·       Metals – aluminum and tin cans, flattened and clean aluminum foil, metal bottle lids and caps

·       Cardboard – stomp the heck out of boxes

Compost:

·       Almost anything that you’d decompose for your garden

·       Most race-related liquid containers – paper and coffee cups

·       Degradable garbage – food waste

·       Napkins, paper towels, paper plates, etc.

·       Liquids – DON’T empty partially-filled containers on ground – just drop them in the bin

Trash – this is the catchall for materials that don’t fit either of the above. We want to keep this well below 10% of our total collection.

·       Goo-packs – there will be lots of these half-slurped energy boosters. Just trash them

·       Plastic bags, Styrofoam, Saran Wrap

·       Waxy stuff –paper or cardboard

·       If in doubt – toss it out Yes, we want minimal trash, but it is necessary to keep the compost/recycle bins free of unacceptable material – e.g. a gunky aluminum container

Handy hints:

·       Involve the public in your effort – be willing to show folks which of the bins to use. Watch out for occasional miscreants who will slide up behind you and chuck something in the wrong bin.

·       Learn to move quickly – at times you will be required to handle a lot of incoming materials with little time to sort things out.

·       Wear gloves – we want to play in the trash, we don’t want to be in too-close contact with it.

·       Check your bins frequently – move items to other bins as needed

·       Enjoy yourself – this is actually a fun-filled activity – many laughs.

Did we say thank you? THANK YOU MANY TIMES OVER

Shane Davis, Chair

Poudre Canyon Group, Sierra Club

509 – 570 -4422

John Gascoyne

Zero Waste king

PCG ExCom