The Bonfyre Trail Fest put on by RF Events moved to a new location this year, down the road a bit from the old site. There was a lot more space for parking and the post-race party, and the bonfires were going well before the start, which was welcome on a chilly morning. The runners got warm doing 5, 10, or 15 miles on the trails, and those of us working Zero Waste got there eventually, as it turned into a beautiful and reasonably warm day.
I don’t know why he was wearing a cone on his head, but he obviously had a special license to! (How do I get one of those?)
Our main Zero Waste station was at the exit to the party area, with a second unstaffed station near the food truck and beer tent. All Waste boxes were given to the s’mores table and beer tent, and the finish line crew brought us their plastic and cardboard.
Lots of smiling faces at the main station. Of course! It’s Zero Waste!
Food was provided by Playa Bowls, who provided protein bites for the finishers and fruit smoothies, and regular food truck Simply Spanish, who uses all compostable materials. Also there was a pickle juice vendor giving out samples, and Bell’s beer in cans.
My, that’s a mighty fruit bowl you have!
Cardboard accounted for about 60 percent of all the waste we collected, with compost coming in second. We collected about 28 lbs. of beer cans (roughly 600 by count), which filled a 96-gallon cart with a bit of spillover. They went to the Pinckney High School baseball team, which we’re hopeful will supply some volunteers for next year.
The biggest individual contributor to landfill by weight was a broken finisher mug, with contaminated plastic bags the most by volume. We also had some mixed plastic spoons, and forks stamped “NON-COMPOSTABLE” we had to landfill.
I was joined by staffers Abby, Bridget, and Linda, and two hardworking volunteers, Sabrina and her son R.J. This team stayed on top of the rush and even got through all the aid station bags. We had everything sorted and weighed at the end, a great relief to me, as we had another event the following day. Sabrina helped me haul stuff to the trailer, and R.J. helped us record the data. They’re welcome to join us again any time!
From left: Jeff, Sabrina, R.J., Linda, Abby. (Not shown: Bridget.)
Our landfill diversion rate was down slightly over previous years, but still close to 99 percent. Great job, all!
