You just finished eating the best vegan Thai tacos with local radishes at Food Truck Friday. All you have left in your hands is a paper boat with some drippings, and a boat load of soiled napkins, because, the messier it is, the better it tastes, right?  Now what to do with your waste: paper boat has a ton of food on it, so it’s probably not recyclable. Napkins are paper, so maybe… You just don’t know anymore, so instead of approaching the Recycling On the Go tent, you just shove it into a trash can by the tree.

Why do event attendees seem to have “waste shame?” There seems to be a lot of pressure to always need to “do the right” thing, especially when others are watching.

Recycling On the Go, a program of earthday365, provides staffing services at dozens of events annually to collect and manage event waste from festival attendees. We collect many tons of material from these events putting it back into our local economy and ecology through recycling and composting. That creates jobs, opportunities, and market products for consumers, manufacturers, and gardeners in our local Midwest region.

We set up “No Shame Zone” collection stations and attendees bring their waste to us where they have the opportunity to see firsthand what material actually can be recycled (plastic cups and bottles), what can be composted (food scraps and napkins), and what needs to get thrown away because it can’t be recycled (paper cups and plastic utensils).

Paper cups: what?

A paper cup is engineered to resist breaking down in the presence of liquid. If it didn’t, there would be a lot of wet laps and unhappy customers at the local coffee shop! They are glued and lined with wax or plastic making it impossible for paper recyclers to pulp them. They gum up the works. And paper that gets food-soiled is not ideal either (e.g. paper trays, napkins and plates with ketchup and BBQ sauce) because it attracts critters at the sorting facilities.

Why don’t they like us?

Human behavior is interesting to observe. We’ve seen attendees dodge around us, sneaking into the back of stations to throw all of their material in a trash barrel, rather than face the intrepid staff and volunteers in the tent. Even when they do come up to the tents, they are just as likely to take their pile of trays, utensils, leftover food, and plastic sauce packets, and dump them upside down quickly into our tubs as if they do not want us to see their waste!

There is no reason to feel food/waste shame. We’ve seen it all and truly want to support you to keep unnecessary bulk out of the landfill.

By nature, special events are designed for creating waste, so by coming to the event you are supporting, and creating waste. You’ll be presented with LOTS of disposables, and “new” things to try. Some you’ll like, others get the one-bite and drop routine. Waste has to go somewhere and if people are going to make it, then fortunately Recycling On the Go is there. Our services remove, on average,  69% of that waste at events through recycling and composting. The really good events achieve numbers of over 90% waste reduction, like our St. Louis Earth Day Festival.

So the next time you attend an event where food is served, look for Recycling On the Go. Stop by our No Shame Zone and say, “Hello!” Proudly walk over to our tent without feeling any shame. We will gladly take your food waste from you and make sure it goes to its best next use!