{"id":800786,"date":"2019-10-28T16:34:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T22:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=373704"},"modified":"2019-10-28T16:34:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T22:34:07","slug":"frisco-commits-to-zero-waste-fourth-of-july-fall-fest-as-part-of-sustainability-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/frisco-commits-to-zero-waste-fourth-of-july-fall-fest-as-part-of-sustainability-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Frisco commits to zero waste Fourth of July, Fall Fest as part of sustainability efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Eva Havlova works a zero waste disposal tent June 15 during the 26th annual Colorado BBQ Challenge on Main Street in Frisco.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Officials in Frisco are pushing forward with efforts to expand the town\u2019s sustainability goals, beginning with new waste-diversion initiatives at a couple of the town\u2019s biggest events.<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Frisco has prided itself on making the Colorado BBQ Challenge a zero waste event, diverting as much waste as possible from landfills and into recycling and compost bins. But earlier this month, the Frisco Town Council passed a resolution to bring other big events under the zero waste umbrella, including Fall Fest and the town\u2019s Fourth of July celebration.<\/p>\n

The move is not only meant to help achieve the town\u2019s sustainability ambitions outlined in the Frisco Strategic Plan adopted earlier this year but also to encourage visitors to become better environmental stewards in their hometowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we are a tourist destination, it\u2019s not just our residents that we can help to educate,\u201d Frisco Town Manager Nancy Kerry said. \u201cThe fact that we get tens of thousands of visitors means that we can inform them, and create new environmental advocates just with simple things like composting food and separating recyclables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nora Gilbertson, Frisco\u2019s events manager and self-described \u201crecyclopath,\u201d said the barbecue challenge has continued to evolve over the years, helping to work out some of the kinks in the town\u2019s waste diversion processes and serving as a sort of proof of concept for further zero waste events. Gilbertson noted that this year, the event achieved a record 43% diversion rate, and perhaps most importantly, community members have begun to embrace the message and do their best not to contaminate the disposal tents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is really nice is it\u2019s becoming a lot cleaner,\u201d Gilbertson said. \u201cIt used to be that as these dumpsters were being brought up to the landfill, (High Country Conservation Center) or even myself would dumpster dive to further clean things because they were too contaminated, and we don\u2019t have to do that anymore. They\u2019re going to the landfill as good product, and we don\u2019t have to have staff wading through four-day-old dumpsters to clean them out further.\u201d<\/p>\n

While town staff and officials point to the barbecue
\nchallenge as a growing success, they believe the inclusion of other events
\ncould make an even bigger impact.<\/p>\n

The new diversion efforts officially kicked off last month during the 2019 Fall Fest, and while the town didn\u2019t have any means to measure diverted waste, staff thinks it went well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good,\u201d Gilbertson said. \u201cWe definitely increased our
\ndiversion rates. We didn\u2019t have scales to measure, but what we did have was
\ncleaner compost and cleaner recycling. We were definitely able to pull more
\nout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fall Fest diversion operated similar to the barbecue challenge,
\nwith volunteers and staff helping to inform individuals of the proper way to
\ndispose of their trash. But as the initiative continues to expand, the town
\nwill have to find different ways to keep up with the flow.<\/p>\n

Finding alternative diversion techniques is important because of the manpower often necessary during events \u2014 the barbecue challenge requires about 400 hours from conservation center volunteers every year \u2014 and because each event features different kinds of crowds with different kinds of trash.<\/p>\n

For example, for the next Fourth of July celebration, Frisco will be hiring a third party contractor to sort through the trash on the back end, which could create an even more robust diversion rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the behavior of the people after the parade you have to look at,\u201d Gilbertson said. \u201cPeople have been sitting, eating snacks, having a soda, and they want to throw away their trash and walk away. Our trash bins are overflowing within minutes, and there\u2019s no way you could receive that many people and provide them with that education. Nobody wants to stand in line to throw away trash. So we can figure out another way to intercept it. It\u2019s going to be sorted on the back end. We\u2019ve never done this, but my guess is that it will have a huge impact. \u2026 Fourth of July produces more trash than we see during our town cleanup day. My guess is we can divert at least 50% from the landfill to be recycled.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the zero waste event initiative will include just the three events, though Kerry said the ultimate goal is to expand it to all town events, along with developing a process to someday require private events to do the same.<\/p>\n

And while the term zero waste is somewhat aspirational for now, staff believes a holistic approach and new sustainability initiatives can help the town reduce its footprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the council wants is to go beyond trash,\u201d Kerry said. \u201cEverything now is about our path to net zero. That path is multifaceted. It might be waste diversion, multimodal transportation, incentivizing carpool or not driving at all. We\u2019re just developing some of these strategies now because council is really focused on this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis council has said we are going to act in the way we
\nspeak. We\u2019ve said environmental sustainability matters; we\u2019ve had green teams,
\ninitiatives and sustainable goals. But unless we speak across the board with
\nhow we invest our money, how we prioritize the goals of the town itself and
\nmaking climate action a high priority \u2014 unless we actually take bold action,
\nwe\u2019re not going to make the progress we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eva Havlova works a zero waste disposal tent June 15 during the 26th annual Colorado BBQ Challenge on Main Street in Frisco.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 Officials in Frisco are pushing forward with efforts to expand the town\u2019s sustainability goals, beginning with new waste-diversion initiatives at a couple of the town\u2019s biggest events. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 17:20:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}