(Chelsea Update would like to thank Jean Vargas for the information and photos in this story.)
The Sounds and Sights Festival planning committee invited the Chelsea Zero Waste Coalition (CZWC) to participate in this year’s festival.
We set up and staffed stations for Composting, Recycling and Trash in the Food Court and the Social Tent. Our goal was to make this festival as GREEN as possible through decreasing what went into the landfill; increasing what was composted and recycled; and educating the public about how to compost, recycle and why these efforts are necessary.
COMPOSTING. This is a great option for certain food and plant materials. It works by creating heat that breaks down the materials so they can be returned to the soil and enhance it. Many people already do this at their homes. To prevent deadly diseases, we are limited at our homes to composting plant-type materials. The composting we did at the festival was made possible by Zero Waste Washtenaw, a program of the county’s Water Resources Commission and is different from what we do in Chelsea but can be done in other communities. They have an industrial composter which reaches a higher temperature and can compost plant materials, food product including meat and bones and all the new cups, plates, flatware that are labeled “compostable. At this event, our compostables were processed by WeCare Denali of Ann Arbor that manufactures and sells commercial compost.
RECYCLING: These items can be repurposed for continued use. This is a better option than trash. Recycling only works if people are willing to buy recycled products.
TRASH: We all know what you do with trash as well as the need to drastically reduce what ends up in the landfills.
Our goal was to make this festival greener by decreasing what went to the landfill while increasing what was be recycled and composted.
The best part of the stations was interacting with people. Most were curious and interested in learning. Some approached a station holding their leftover food, containers, napkins, etc. saying “show me what to do.” Others were interested in the differences between our composting and industrial composting. One young man said: “We need industrial composting in Chelsea.” A previous Chelsea resident now living in California, said: “That’s what we do at home. I’m so glad to see Chelsea doing it, too.”
So, What Did CZWC 16 Volunteers Accomplish?
To quote our lead volunteer for the weekend: “We collected 14 (40 gallon) bags of compost and 9 bags of recycling. We also kept many returnable cans and bottles out of the landfill by pulling them out of the trash (they were given to Kiwanis is redeem and support their work). Additionally we captured plastic film, glass, cardboard, and Styrofoam.”
I think we met our goals. Yah.
CZWC cannot take all the credit for this success. We also want to thank the organizers of the festival and the many other volunteers who worked with us. A special thanks to the Knights of Columbus who worked with us to manage the large amount of returnables, compostables, and recyclables in the social tent.
There were so many positive interactions and interest from the public who are taking these issues seriously and want to improve Chelsea.
CZWC plans to be back for next year’s festival well as at future events. We have analyzed what we plan to do differently and better. We hope to see you all again.
Thank you to the community for your support.
