GRASSROOTS Recycles! Composts! Urges You to Reuse!

Don’t you love a festival of music & dance sporting an abundance of CRT stations for your Composting & Recycling convenience? You never need to go far to toss your apple core, glass bottle, plastic container, or biodegradable plate, and you can be sure the compostables will be turned into black gold through the efforts of the Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cayuga Compost. There are Trashcans at the stations too, for the not compostable and not recyclable. While the trash tossing is not yet entirely avoidable, CCE claims the festival is near zero waste and the goal is to have no trash at all!

This goal seams feasible, as all purveyors of fine, typical, exotic, and even junk food at Grassroots are required to use 100% compostable dinnerware-plates, cups, bowls, spoons, knives and bowls. Festival-goers are urged to bring a drinking receptacle which they can fill up with ice cold water at a hand-pumped spigot (I only spotted, and refilled from one, but there may be more) or from a large thermal container at the lost and found. There is always a variety of drinking water-among them “Kosher” and “Vegan”- at the Emergency Medical Tent, where they won’t run out of cups-they want you to stay hydrated! But it is great to see Grassroots souvenir travel mugs dangling from backpacks and belt loops when they’re not filled with a beverage and in someone’s hand. Think of all the disposable cups not being  over the course of four days because we’re refilling! Of course backstage areas boast compostables as well, with a writing utensil close to the stack of paper cups so ownership can be established and cups used over.

While the festival offers a variety of ready-to-eat food, festival goers pick up supplies like ice, drinks, food, & various sundries from the very close-by Shur Save, Kinney Drugs, and Byrne Dairy, (often carried back in plastic bags-shield my eyes!) which most likely account for the trash cans being necessary. A mile down the road is Good to Go, where you can pick up a good chapstick, offers glass- bottled drinks like Coconut Water and Kombucha, as well as delectable lunch food, nuts, chocolate, and desserts to be eaten in air-conditioned comfort or taken away in compostable containers. Gimme Coffee, too, offers a respite from the elements with coffee and coffee drinks, always in containers that’ll break down in a compost pile, even the straws!

Thank you to Grassroots for working towards zero waste! Thank you to everyone who takes the time to separate their paper plate from their glass bottle, and pitching them accordingly.

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