We hear you!
Events Recycling
Vashon Rotary Blues and Brews Festival – ZWV attended the event and coordinated the Garbage, Recycling and Food Waste collection. In cooperation with the Rotary Club and Orca Eats, ZWV collected over 1700 “commercially” compostable cups, clam-shells, bamboo plates, and food waste totaling about 250 gallons. These items were then dropped of at the Vashon Island Transfer Station. ZWV also collected Commingled recycling (85 gallons) along with mixed garbage (250 gals).
ZWV has heard repeated requests from the community that they would like to see more recycling and less waste at the many Vashon Island events. ZWV staff and volunteers have heeded the call and we started our waste reduction initiative at some of the smaller events such as Land Trust dinners, Heritage Museum Virginia V tour, Mukai Farm Japanese Festival and Rotary’s Blues & Brews.
In 2018 ZWV tackled the Strawberry Festival by setting up 15 recycling stations, which diverted about a sixth of the trash from the landfill: converting over 250 lbs of food waste into compost and recycling over 400 lbs of clean glass, plastic, metal, paper and cardboard. This year ZWV is partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to fund two recycling stations at the Strawberry Festival that will sort recyclables in order to minimize contamination.
Our aspiration is to generate the “Vashon Green Protocol”- advice and guidelines for Island organizations, such as using compostable or reusable beverage containers, plates and utensils. These are all steps to make our events as waste-free as possible, ultimately increasing Vashon’s sustainability. We hear you!