Halloween comes early at Wiard’s Orchards, where RF Events puts on the annual Run Scream Run 5K/10K, complete with a costume contest and a run through a Haunted Village at the end. The cool morning was perfect for running, and we had the usual collection of fancy outfits, including – yes – a human refrigerator. And the Green Team was there to make sure we didn’t end up with a big scary pile of trash.
As usual, we set up Zero Waste stations on either end of the building where cider and donuts are served, and an All Waste box near the porta-potties. The finish line crew brought us cardboard, collected wrap from awards and other miscellaneous items.
Major waste streams were cardboard, banana peels and donuts, and cups from cider and the water stops. The cider cups were compostable, which meant we didn’t need to rinse them, saving us a lot of effort.
Jeff was joined on the Green Team by intern Cole, and volunteers Bridget, her son Andrew, and Leslie. With their help we wrapped everything up before noon and left the race area clean.
Waste was down by half from last year to just 61 lbs. with compostables at just 14 lbs. vs. 41 in 2024. As attendance was only slightly lower, this came primarily from a reduction in banana peels and uneaten donuts. Landfill (tape, diaper, waxy donut paper) was about the same, so we had a slightly lower diversion percentage, but still above 97 percent. Nothing scary about that!
Happy Planet Running 