Recycle on the Go Success Stor
Lowell Folk Festival Recycling Program
In the 20 years since its inception, the free Lowell Folk Festival has become the largest event
of its kind. With a waste diversion rate of 95 percent, the festival is recognized as a national
model for recycling at large-scale special events.
Facts-at-a-Glance
More than 200,000 people
attend the three-day Lowell
Folk Festival each year.
The Lowell Folk Festival
received the Massachusetts
Recycling Coalition's 2004
Institutional Recycling Award
for making an outstanding
contribution to recycling
in Massachusetts.
The program's diversion
rate skyrocketed from 0
percent in 1999 to 90 to
95 percent in 2003.
Program Overview
Approximately 130 volun-
teers support the program
each year, working four- to
five-hour shifts.
"If we (the National Park
Service) are not out in
front leading by example,
then who will do it?'"
- Ted Davis, Lowell
National Historical
Park Facility Manager
Photo courtesy of Lowell Folk Festival
First held in 1987, the annual Lowell Folk Festival
draws more than 200,000 people to Lowell,
Massachusetts, for the last weekend of July. Together,
the city of Lowell, the Lowell Festival Foundation,
Lowell National Historic Park (National Park Service),
and the National Council for the Traditional Arts
organize the festival. Six performance stages, along
with various food vendors, nonprofit exhibitions, crafts, and a family activities area, are
scattered throughout the downtown area. Although festival organizers recognized an
incredible opportunity for waste reduction at this event, the festival's large size posed
quite a challenge for a recycling program.
Nuts and Bolts
To ensure the greatest possibility of success, organizers
carefully planned and implemented the festival's
recycling program in several steps:
• In 1999, a contractor performed an informal waste
assessment by interviewing vendors and visually
observing trash can contents. As expected, most of
the waste consisted of polystyrene food and beverage
containers, as well as plastic food service items such
as straws and plastic utensils.
In 2000, program organizers placed approximately 100 44-gallon recycling collection
bins next to trash cans. Signs with words, pictures, and directional arrows were bolted
to the side of each collection bin. Organizers also established a central recycling center
where materials were sorted and loaded onto trucks for recycling.
In 2001, festival organizers introduced a pilot composting program. Vendors were
no longer allowed to dispense plastics, such as plastic utensils and straws, with food
items; instead, organizers provided vendors with compostable cornstarch utensils
free of charge.
In 2002, full-scale recyclable and compostable materials recovery went into effect.
Photo courtesy of Lowell Folk Festival
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Including the Public
and Community
Public and community
participation is essential to the
success of any recycling effort,
especially one as large as the
Lowell Folk Festival. Event
organizers invite public and
community participation by:
• Recruiting volunteers from
the community (see text box
at bottom for more details).
Calling participants and
organizations personally to
ask them to return in follow-
ing years has yielded positive
results.
• Encouraging families to
participate by joining the
recyclables sorting team.
Kids who help may take an
"I promise to recycle" pledge
and receive a "Recycling
Team" button.
• Creating an interactive educa-
tion center in association with
the Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Protection.
More than 25 recycling and
composting films are shown
throughout the festival. In
recognition of their support,
recycling program sponsors
also receive a free booth in the
education center.
* Asking local businesses—in
person—to avoid the use of
plasticware. Unlike vendors
who are on a contract with
the festival, organizers cannot
require businesses located
nearby or inside the festival
grounds to sign a contract
discouraging the use of plastic
utensils. But organizers still
have had overwhelming coop-
eration from local businesses
they spoke with directly.
Volunteers
Volunteers are an essential element to the festival's
recycling program. Two months before each
festival, planners advertise for approximately 130
recycling volunteers. At the start of the volunteers'
shift, organizers give them maps of the festival
area and briefly explain their duties. The festival
is divided into four- to five-hour shifts with 15
recruits working each shift.
Photo courtesy of Lowell Folk Festival
Volunteers serve in specific roles:
• Recycling Captains: These volunteers, who
have recycling program experience, coordinate the efforts of all volunteer positions.
Recycling captains also troubleshoot any problems and coordinate bin emptying efforts
with runners via cell phones.
• Vendor Captains: Organizers recognized that it would be difficult for vendors to col-
lect recyclables during peak business hours. To solve this problem, vendor captains
regularly stop at vendors' stations and collect their recyclables. Vendor captains drive
golf carts for fast and easy transportation.
• Recycling Collectors/Runners: These volunteers drive golf carts to different collection
locations. They empty full containers, load bags onto the carts, and bring the bags to
the recycling center for sorting.
• Recycling Processors: These volunteers are stationed at the recycling center and sort
through the bags that the volunteers drop off.
Recycling program organizers provide all volunteers with "Lowell Folk Festival Volunteer"
t-shirts. Children who volunteer also receive hats.
The YWCA Summer Youth Program, Lowell Boys & Girls Club, and community
churches provide event volunteers each year. Program organizers thank each of these
community groups with a $ 1,000 donation. The YWCA has helped the festival's recycling
program since the beginning, so it also receives the profits from the collected beverage
containers—which total approximately $800 each year.
Recruiting Volunteers
The Lowell Folk Festival organizers find volunteers in a number of ways:
• Internet message boards and the Lowell Folk Festival Web site
• Local newspapers and periodicals
• Word-of-mouth
• Local youth groups, community groups, and nonprofit organizations
Contacting each participant and organization personally by phone to ask them to
return in following years has yielded very positive results.
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How It's Done
Gloved volunteers sort materials collected from commingled collection bins, as well as remove and dispose of contaminants
and excess liquid. Processors push the materials into hauling trucks stationed at the end of sorting tables.
Other volunteers sort compostable materials. These volunteers move all food and compostable serving items into the hauling
truck and remove noncompostable items for either recycling or disposal.
Composting
Composting at such a large event can be difficult due to contamination problems and the
types of food served. Program organizers address this issue by requiring vendors to use only
compostable or biodegradable serving utensils when serving food. For easier compliance,
program organizers supplied vendors with compostable utensils—free of charge—for the first
two years of the composting program. Festival organizers now sell vendors compostable
utensils at half price. However, to "close the loop" and achieve environmental benefits, these
utensils actually need to reach the compost bins. Runners empty vendor-area trash cans and photo courtesy of Loweii Folk Festival
bring them to the recycling center, where processors sort the contents. Program organizers then send the compostable utensils and
food waste to a commercial composting facility, so all food waste, including meat and dairy products, can be composted.
The recycling coordinator retrieves the resulting compost one month before the next festival. Most of the compost is sent to
the city of Lowell and the Lowell National Historical Park for landscaping. Organizers bag the remaining compost to give to
festival attendees as souvenirs. Attendees are fascinated that the food waste they produced at the previous year's event can
fertilize their gardens the following year.
Vendors and Concessionaires
Vendors and concessionaires are integral to a successful recycling program. Folk festival organizers contractually prohibit
them from dispensing nonrecyclable items, such as polystyrene food and beverage containers, or snack bags.
Funding
While the Lowell Folk Festival receives some financial assistance from the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the primary source
of funding comes from sponsorship, including:
• Monetary donations. Many local businesses, such as grocery stores and
retailers, often are eager to support community events.
• Service donations. Local haulers may be willing to provide free service for
an event.
• Product donations. Local businesses often welcome an opportunity to contribute to
their community by donating items such as hats, t-shirts, and compostable utensils.
• Advertising. Empty space on recycling bins provides an opportunity for local advertising.
This space can be purchased or given to businesses to thank them for monetary, service,
or product donations.
• Grants. Nonprofit organizations and state governments sometimes provide
financial assistance in the form of grants and partnerships.
Photo courtesy of Lowell Folk Festival
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Since its inception in 1999,
the recycling program has:
• Recycled 144,007 beverage
containers.
• Composted 165,000 meals
(weight equivalent).
• Distributed 9,300 bags of
compost to attendees.
"If we could make it
happen at the Lowell
Festival, we could make it
happen anywhere—there
are 250,000 to 300,000
people! If we could do this
here, my god, we're setting
up a model for the rest of
the country."
- Pat Scanlon, Lowell
Folk Festival Recycling
and Composting
Program Coordinator
Photo courtesy of Lowell Folk Festival
Challenges and Solutions
• Challenge: Discouraging those who scav-
enge for aluminum cans and
plastic beverage bottles at the
festival to exchange them for
money.
Solution: Volunteers empty collection
containers frequently—before
they are full—to deter scavenging.
• Challenge: Ensuring vendor compliance with festival requirements.
Solution: Organizers insert a "no plastic" clause into vendor contracts. Providing
vendors with free compostable utensils the first two years of the
program encouraged compliance.
• Challenge: Changing the recycling habits of both festival attendees and vendors.
Solution: Organizers make recycling easy and obvious by placing collection bins
next to every trash can and attaching signs with words, pictures, and
directional arrows to the bins.
Reasons for Success
• Festival organizers support the recycling
program and make it easy for vendors to
recycle.
• The recycling program is designed by some'
one with significant recycling experience.
• Program expenses are paid for by
sponsorships.
• Community members and organizations
volunteer for the event.
Photo courtesy of Lowell Folk Festival
• Bags of compost from the previous year's festi-
val remind attendees that food waste, when composted, can be useful.
The Lowell Folk Festival Web site can be found at < www.lowellfolkfestival.orgX
&ER&
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Solid Waste (5306P)
EPA 530-F36-025
December 2006
www.epa.gov/recycleonthego
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Process Chlorine Free Recycled Paper
EPA is partnering with
other federal agencies,
states, municipalities, and
organizations to promote
recycling away from home.
www.epa.gov/recycleonthego
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