Approximately 4,000 pounds of recyclables were collected during the four-day Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, a tenfold increase over 2013, in Centre County.

Thanks to the efforts of FestZero; a group of Penn State Alumni, current students and concerned citizens, the Borough of State College,  the Pennsylvania State University and the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority, recycling collection was “stepped up a notch”, according to Joanne Shafer & Brad Fey; two of the event organizers. 

For the first time, organic waste was collected for addition into the Borough’s organics recycling program.

“We’ve been recycling at Arts Fest since 1990”, Shafer stated, “but his year, a very dedicated group of volunteers vowed to improve the efforts”.  “I think the numbers speak for themselves.”

“We need to be looking at organics as essentially another recycling commodity”, Shafer said.  “Although the weight of the recyclables was not huge in comparison to the trash collected, since the majority of the organics were paper products and the bulk of the recyclables were plastic bottles, the volume was substantial.”

According to the National Recycling Coalition’s Environmental Benefits Calculator, recycling at this year’s Arts Festival equated to an energy savings of approximately 90 households’ yearly energy consumption, and two metric tons carbon equivalents of greenhouse gas reduction.  This is the same as removing one car from the road for a whole year.

Look for additional recycling efforts at the 2015 festival.

8/4/2014