by Green Team captain Alexandria Galens
Dances with Dirt was a great Saturday! The sun was shining and the course was considerably less muddy than in previous years. With one volunteer and three staff members the slow morning and busy afternoon went as smoothly as anyone could have hoped. There were also some excellent costumes including a Barbie duo, team Mardi Gras, and a couple of chicken costumes that left many feathers to be picked up. And, as always, there was beer for the thirsty relay teams and ultrarunners at the finish.
We set up the main sorting station near the stage and Little Caesars truck. In addition, we gave an All Waste box to the registration table and set one up at the 50 mile aid station. These bins were filled up often but we regularly serviced them. We also picked up litter around the area periodically.
There were two food trucks at the event: Little Caesars, which sold personal pizzas, and My Little Honey Pot, serving vegetarian food. The majority of the waste items were compostable cups that beer was served in, cans brought in by attendees, and Little Caesars pizza boxes, pizza, and sauce cups. The pizza boxes were broken down and stacked on top of each other to make the best use of space. They were then placed in the compost as they were all too contaminated to be recycled. The aid station bags arrived in a timely manner and contained waxed lined cups, water jugs, and food waste. There were also small amounts of TerraCycle materials like Gu wrappers and small plastics, and some muddy clothes and shoes.
We set up around 7 a.m. and began takedown around 7:15 p.m. as people began to clear out. We went around to the last couple of attendees and staff to let them know we were packing up and collect the rest of their waste. We then weighed everything, loaded up our cars (the volunteer took the returnable cans!), and condensed the remaining supplies to be picked up by Jeff later in the week.
The day was very relaxed and remained quite calm until around 4:30 pm. We loved seeing all the energy at the event and being able to maintain a high diversion rate. Thanks to the RF Events staff for putting on such a great event!
(Note: The top photo is from the event’s Facebook page.)
Happy Planet Running 