Moondance a model of a successful zero-waste event

BAYarts Executive Director Nancy Heaton and Green Team member Warren Remein stand in front of containers full of compostable waste from Moondance's "zero waste" event. The containers will be collected by Rosby Resource Recycling and turned into compost to be used by area landscapers within 90 days.

BAYarts' annual Moondance fundraising event on Sept. 14 was a lovely evening of delicious food and beverage, lively music and relaxing fellowship. It was attended by 1,200 guests.

This year’s Moondance was also a “zero waste” event. Amazingly 98 percent of all of the event waste was either composted or recycled!

Behind the scenes preparation made this zero-waste event possible. In working with all of the caterers, BAYarts staff and Bay Village Green Team members made sure that all items used for food service were fully compostable. This meant that all of the “trash” generated from food and beverage waste was in fact compostable.

Compostable cutlery was used in place of the traditional plastic cutlery. Paper plates were used in place of Styrofoam or plastic. And wood stir sticks for coffee and serving side accompaniments in small paper liners were available. No plastic or foil was used when serving the guests.  

The benefit of this was that all “trash” generated by event guests was captured in waste containers with compostable liners and sent to a commercial composter to be composted.

Prior to the event, special recycling pick-up was arranged with each caterer and beverage service. Recyclable items were collected separately. For example, there was recycling for wine and pop bottles and cardboard and paper through the BAYarts recycle contract. There was special recycling of aluminum foil/tin serving containers and plastic bags through drop-off recycling.

The result was that 98 percent of the waste generated by the event was either composted or recycled. The waste was collected in 35-gallon bags. At the end of the evening, there were 51 large bags of “waste” to be composted or recycled. There was only one bag of trash that went to the landfill!