164,061 Pounds of material kept out of area landfills in 2014!

Since the program’s inception in 2007, Recycling On the Go has kept approximately 323 tons of materials from area landfills (primarily recycling, but this figure includes organic waste, compostable food service items, edible food and spent cooking oil). Over these seven years, ROG has enhanced the waste management of 428 events (784 event days). Many of these events occur annually, allowing ROG to become an established partner with event organizers and anticipated part of patrons’ experience. Since the beginning, the program has exposed over 5.8 million people to recycling when they’ve been away from home.

ROG staff member Anna Eggemeyer assisting at a sorting station at the 2014 Pedal the Cause.

We are happy to report that through these efforts, the public has come to expect access to recycling containers when they attend events. In 2014 alone, we collected 67 tons of single stream recyclables, 13.5 tons of organics like food waste and compostable service ware, and 1.09 tons of spent cooking oil — keeping all of it out of area landfills. That’s almost 1,300 cubic yards of waste! In addition to breaking our record for waste diversion, we provided event greening services at more events than ever.

St. Louis Earth Day provided event greening services for 91 events in 2014, 52 of which were full-service events staffed by our dedicated ROG staff and volunteers like the St. Louis Art Museum’s Outdoor Film Series, Sauce Magazine’s Food Truck Friday series and Pedal the Cause in October. Thirty-nine events fell under the Do-It-Yourself loan program classification, meaning that 39 mostly small, community-organized events accessed our bins to provide recycling services to those attending their various functions and fundraisers. In this capacity, our bins were present at a range of diverse events from the Art in the Park at Laumeier, to a trivia night raising funds for a person with cancer, to six Fish Fry events at St. Ann’s in Normandy (which diverted 98% of their waste because they also included composting.)

ROG Program Manager Bob Henkel taking a break before the Feast in the Park food truck event at Laumeier Park in St. Louis County.

With 82 tons of materials diverted in 2014, more waste than ever before was kept out of area landfills by this program. ROG was available at a more diverse list of events than ever before. The quality of onsite execution and recyclables collected was improved by increased ROG Event Staff support and our new full-time ROG Program Manager. The average diversion rate for all ROG full service events was 69% by weight. Twenty-five full service ROG events achieved diversion rates of 70% or higher by weight. 39 of 52 events achieved a rate of diversion over 50%.

Click here to see a list of all Recycling On the Go events in 2014!