Green fest!

Monday, May 19, 2008 -- 10:08 a.m.

I had a fantastic weekend, one of the highlights being the Green Festival at Navy Pier. I learned a lot, tasted yummy food and came home feeling greener just having attended!

They collected entrance badges upon leaving, offering to recycle them, food vendors were required to use compostable containers and the carbon offsets were provided for the entire event.

But one of my favorite things about the Green Festival was the effort to divert as much waste as possible from landfills. They set up waste stations, with volunteers at each to help direct items to their correct container--including the basics such as aluminum and paper, as well as dry and wet compostables.

In addition to all the hard work being done in the festival area, a large group of volunteers in the background worked to go through the pre-sorted materials again to ensure everything went to the right place.

Kristen Kennedy of Seven-Star (green event experts) said they worked with the City of Chicago's recycling program, as well as a few others in order to make sure they recycled as much as possible. She said new this year was a place they found that recycled plastics #3, 4, 5, etc.--plastics not taken by the city. That, Kennedy said, would increase the percentage of waste diverted from landfills this year.

If only we could all do that!