Another weekend of peace, music, camping, and running is done, with another successful RF Events Run Woodstock in Gregory Sept. 5-7.
And man, do peaceful camping runners eat a lot.
Since Zero Waste began at Run Woodstock in 2016, the lowest amount of waste the Green Team has processed is over 1,300 lbs., although that’s less than half the waste of earlier years, with improved selection of materials and better use. When you can reduce waste as well as recycle it, with runners still happy with the experience, that’s a win.
The 100-milers starting off Friday, happy that they’re running a sustainable race!
The Green Team was shorthanded on Friday and Saturday, but we managed to keep on top of things, mainly by focusing on the main streams and saving some things for later (e.g. no Saturday compost center trip) and letting more marginal items go to landfill. A strong crew on Sunday morning allowed me to weigh and drop off two trailer loads of recycling while they plowed through the remaining sorting. Our landfill total was up slightly from last year but our diversion rate was still over 95 percent.
The Sunday Green Team hard at work. Mike is sporting a vintage “Team Zero Waste” shirt from the first year we did this.
We set up the main station in its usual place in the finish area. Like last year we set up a large orange tarp for unsorted bags, which clearly marked which needed attention from the sorted ones, and made it easy for the aid station waste dropoff crews where to put everything they’d collected. We also set up unstaffed stations in the stage area and the Hog Farm aid station.
Babs at the main station on Saturday. How do you like our vibe?
Renee shows her enthusiasm for saving the planet.
The staff at the registration pavilion and finish line brought their waste to us, so thanks for saving us some much-needed time!
Other things that went well:
- Our second station in the stage area collected a lot of waste, and on Friday we could handle swapping out the boxes. With the bigger crowd and less bandwidth on Saturday, the boxes overflowed and I made the decision to shut down the station and hoped people would come to the main station. They must have, as there was very little litter there the rest of the day.
- Thanks to RF staffer Bill, who sweeps the aid stations, who starting bringing us collected waste early so we could process it throughout the day.
- I took home the collected compostables Saturday night so after dropping off the single-stream recycling, saving me a second trip there and back on Sunday. We ended up with eight 96-gallon carts of food waste and compostable items!
- Last year we got a large pile of discarded batteries. This year we had only a few. Not sure why, although I’d like to believe more runners are using rechargeable headlamps, as I am.
Food trucks this year were Simply Spanish, Little Caesars, Ms. Coffee, and Craveables. They all used compostable items except the Ms. Coffee cups and boats, which were standard poly-lined. Chris Cakes served breakfast and lunch on Saturday, using compostable plates and sporks provided by RF Events.
Challenges and opportunities for improvement:
- The Ms. Coffee food boats closely resembled the compostable ones from Craveables, so I had to train my staff to recognize the difference. Next year we could supply compostable ones to Ms. Coffee.
- Last year the aid stations went to 100 percent compostable cups. This year there was a mix of waxed and compostable cups, requiring extra sorting and for some waxed cups, rinsing before we could recycle them.
- In a couple of bags, loose coffee grounds were mixed in with recycling. This was a big mess that is easily avoidable, as the aid station crews can just bag them separately.
- The amount of things needing rinsing out far exceeded the pails of warm water we collected. So most of it got rinsed out at HPR HQ after the race. Perhaps we can set up a better washing station onsite.
Finally, many thanks to staffers Cole, Jen, Marilyn, Han, Jenny, and Liz and volunteers Julia, Mike, Ed, Renee, Sarah, Thomas, and Babs for all their hard work. Go team!
Happy Planet Running 