Over 5,400 pounds of organics and recyclable material were collected during the four day Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts & The People’s Choice Festival in Centre County. 

Over 33,000 water bottles, lemonade cups and aluminum cans were recycled between the two festivals – that’s enough to line the Arts Festival route end to end nearly 2.5 times! 

Festival attendees were given many recycling options to choose from.  Recycling bins were set up throughout festival grounds for plastic bottles, metal cans, lemonade cups and French fry buckets.  There were also bins to collect compostable material.

Arts Fest gets “greener” each year thanks to the efforts of Fest Zero; 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. 

New this year was the donation of food items to local shelters following the event. 

“Reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order,” says Joanne Shafer, Recycling Coordinator for the Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority.  “The more you reduce, the less you have to worry about in the end.”  

Shafer added, “It was a great year for recycling at our local festivals.  Thanks to the efforts of our festival attendees, we were able to divert approximately 50 percent of waste (by volume) from the landfill.

For more information, visit the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority website.

[Posted: August 2, 2017]

8/7/2017