It was a warm, humid day at this year’s Running Between the Vines at Sandhill Crane Vineyards, so the cold grapes in the post-race party area were the first things to go. But the 5K, 5 mile, and half marathon runners and their families stuck around to enjoy plentiful chocolate, cheese, and wine, along with live jazz music.
The event has a large “footprint,” with waste being generated in quantity in four different locations spread throughout the vineyard’s property. But HPR staffers Cole, Marilyn and Debbie, and volunteer Jessica held down the busy stations and got everything weighed. And many thanks to RF Events staffer Amy at the finish line, who stacked all the cardboard from the finisher glasses and snack boxes next to the HPR trailer.
We set up three stations, one in the party area, one at the top of the hill where finishers pass, and by the porta-potties. We temporarily moved the vineyard’s recycling and trash carts to avoid contamination, and put an All Waste box on their trash can near their café entrance, which last year had filled up with race waste. In the party area we put out three All Waste boxes at various food stations, which we swapped out when full. We collected the event’s waste in style. How could we not?
Debbie and Marilyn at our stylish station.
In a big improvement from last year, there was no mixing of compostable and plastic cups in the party area, and the few plastic cups we got at the other stations were easily identified and sorted out.
Everything went smoothly, and we were done by 1:00. We were even able to capture the paper towels from the handwashing stations for compost. And I had time to walk the start and finish lines to pick up litter but found almost none, another big improvement from years past.
All that and a near 99 percent landfill diversion rate made for a good day for sustainability!
Happy Planet Running 