Some people are just great at talking trash. On June 17 we launched a new group in partnership with Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc., Novak Sanitary Service and the City of Sioux Falls. The all-volunteer team call themselves the “Trash Talkers,” and we launched our efforts at Automania 2009, a huge downtown car show and festival.
Our team of nearly thirty volunteers kept downtown clean and green by interacting with event-goers to encourage recycling, while collecting and sorting through the trash created by a record crowd at the downtown car show and festival.
We broke the all-time recycling record for a downtown event–DTSF set a lofty goal of recycling 35% of the trash at Automania this year, and together we shot past that by saving 43% from being hauled to the landfill! That’s an awesome start.
Some little tricks we tried: instead of just labeling the trash containers “trash,” we put a “Landfill” sticker on each to remind people what goes in there will end up in a big hole west of town. We had single-stream recycling containers, so all plastic, glass, metal, cardboard and paper (not dirty with food) could go in one place. It worked, kind of. At a big event like this, people tend not to read very carefully. So, thanks to lots of dirty work and a great gadget invented by Boy Scout Troop 584 from Brandon, we actually sorted through all 2 tons of trash from Automania to be sure we recycled all that we could. Of those 2 tons of trash we collected at Automania, .86 tons were recycled instead of going to the landfill (or 43%). In 2008, .25 of 1.26 tons (20%) were recycled at the same event.
“Through the very visual and active presence of the Trash Talkers,” said Jennifer Schmidtbauer with DTSF, “we hope people in our community become more conscious of recycling not only at our events, but make it a regular practice they carry through in their own homes.”
The Trash Talkers team will hit the streets next at Hot Summer Nites on July 15, then at JazzFest on July 17 and 18. Trash Talkers help our community, our environment and get cool stuff.
To join the Trash Talkers team, visit siouxfallsgreenproject.org/trashtalkers or call 605.610.4240.
*Volunteers should be over 15 years old and be able to lift 30 lbs.
Filed under: Trash Talkers, Volunteers
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That is such an impressive project and I don’t recall any press coverage or ceremonial medals etc!
Have you seen those artists’ photos and photoshopped designs or pictures that you realize up close are a zillion plastic bottles/# used daily/land fill ??
If you have photos, it’d be great to photoshop mass landfill and amt per person per day, or year or whatever in some graphic way and sell ‘em for $$ for y’all next spring! Cool?
Not that I know how to do anything like that…thx for what you did and make the most of it to get the ball rolling in s.f.