VC Star
By David Goldstein
1/26/25
You paid to get into an event. You waited in a line for food. When you finish eating and are eager to enjoy the event, are you willing to spend time looking for a recycling container?
Unless recycling at events is convenient and well marked, many otherwise decent people, in their rush to return to activities, may just throw away all their leftovers in one container. Bottles, cans and food leftovers sent to landfills waste resources. Food sent to landfills emits methane gas, a climate-changing gas far more powerful than carbon, when it rots without oxygen.
There is also another good reason for event organizers to provide their customers with convenient, well marked recycling. It is the law.
Recycling cans, bottles, cardboard and other items at large events has long been a requirement, but the bar rose for event recycling when Senate Bill 1383 passed in 2016, with new rules that took effect in 2022, mandating food recycling.
This year, those rules are likely to start being enforced in some local jurisdictions.
More significantly, the mandate is not just for collection of food waste for composting, but also for recovery for human consumption of unsold but edible food. Unsold, edible food is not to simply be composted if health and safety requirements for recovery can be met.
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, CalRecycle, is taking measures to assist jurisdictions in enforcement. Last week, CalRecycle hosted a webinar on methods for recycling and food recovery at large events and venues.
A featured speaker from Disneyland described food recycling and recovery at the company’s resorts, theme parks and the many restaurants and other facilities at the Downtown Disney development. Another speaker, an organizer of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire spoke about incorporating recycling into her event.
Perhaps because recycling is neither particularly associated with the Renaissance nor with pleasure, contamination of recycling bins at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire got so bad at one point that organizers took drastic measures. They stationed a staff person next to every group of containers, helping revelers correctly separate discards into three categories: recyclables, food and trash.
Another challenge of the event related to the closing time. The event went into the night, when food pantries are closed, and food pick-up options are limited. The solution involved refrigerated trucks and cold storage.
The basic rules for effective recycling at businesses also apply to events. Containers for recycling and for food waste should have slotted lids. Labels with graphics should be on the side and on the lid.
Every recycling container should be next to trash container, and the trash container should be slightly more convenient either because of placement or because the trash containers do not have lids.
It is only a small problem when people who refuse to recycle or who are just oblivious to it, throw away a few recyclables in a trash container, but that relatively small percentage of the population can cause a biggerproblem if they throw away garbage in the recycling container.
Contamination can negate the good work of many other people, making a load of otherwise correctly separated material unrecyclable.
Another mandate of SB 1383, also scheduled for gradual implementation, is color coding for waste containers. Black or gray is the color for trash. Green is the color for food waste or yard clippings. Yellow may be used for food waste alone. Blue signifies recycling.
By 2036, when all curbside containers must conform to the color-coding scheme, Californians are likely to associate each color with a different set of materials.
For now, the full range of event recycling requirements applies only to events hosting over 2,000 people on a day, and only if those attendees either pay an admission fee or if the event is organized by a city or county agency. This includes sporting events and flea markets, even if operating on streets or in a park.
Requirements also apply to large venues, which seat or serve an average of more than 2,000 people per day of operation. This includes stadiums, amphitheaters, amusement parks, airports, theaters, and other public attractions.
If you are an event organizer, check with your city or county recycling coordinator for assistance. Some cities, such as Oxnard, Port Hueneme, and Ventura, provide recycling containers to supplement hauler-provided containers. Other coordinators, including me for events in unincorporated portions of Ventura County, help event organizers write recycling plans required for event permitting.
David Goldstein, an enviornmental resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, can be reached at 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.
