On the heels of a busy spring season – which featured seven events that diverted tons of material from landfills – Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) “Green Team” members are ready to lessen waste at numerous large-scale events this summer. In coming months, PRC’s Zero Waste program will partner with numerous events including the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, Northside Music Festival and PedalPGH to achieve waste minimization and diversion via a system that coordinates planning, logistics, vendor selection, and on-site management.
At Zero Waste events, PRC staff members serve as ambassadors to educate patrons and assist them with properly sorting waste to maximize diversion. On-site efforts result in diverting tons of material from landfills to become valuable compost and recycled products and create jobs in recovery and re-manufacturing.
Summer 2023 PRC Zero Waste events will include:
- Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival: June 2 – 11
- Pride Millvale: June 24
- Northside Music Festival: July 14 – 16
- “Hometown Night” concert at Hartwood Acres: July 30
- Pittsburgh VegFest: August 5
- Rock, Reggae and Relief: August 19
- PedalPGH: August 27
“Event organizers work with our PRC team to pursue innovative waste reduction and management practices with an ultimate goal of diverting 90% or more material from landfill through a system of reuse, recovery, recycling and composting,” says Chesapeake First, PRC Zero Waste Events Coordinator. “Last year, PRC’s Zero Waste efforts diverted 73,000 pounds of waste at 28 events throughout our region.”
According to PRC Executive Director Darren Spielman, “In addition to greening festivals, footraces and fundraisers, PRC offers commercial businesses, institutions and local governments across the state a wide variety of Zero Waste services including technical assistance, audits and analysis. Since launching the Zero Waste program in 2009, PRC has worked to prevent an immeasurable volume of waste from ever being produced and to divert 550 tons of material from landfill and limit the toxicity from discarded products to Pennsylvania’s land, air and water.”