Pickathon drew 5000 attendees, and about 2500 of them participated in the “Ditch Single Use Dishes” program.   Participants had their choice of Eco-Takeouts™ in various sizes, or bamboo plateware.   GO Box, a business featured in last week’s blog entry, supplied the reusable containers and managed the collection and washing process.

The accountability system should look familiar by now.   Each participant paid $10 to “buy in” and receive a token.    He or she would then take the token to a food vendor and order a meal either in an Eco-Takeouts™ container or on bamboo dinnerware (participant’s choice). Eco-friendly utensils were included in the fee.     The festival had several dish return stations set up to collect used containers/plates and dispense tokens in exchange.   At festival’s end, participants had three options: keep the containers or dishware, return them and receive a $5 refund, or get a token to use at a downtown Portland food cart serviced by GO Box.

As is often the case, planning the implementation took some effort.  “We had to come up with a system that was easy for vendors and festival goers,” said GO Box Founder Laura Weiss. However, working closely with festival planners, Laura and her team came up with a process she described as “seamless.”

Music lovers expressed appreciation for the reusable program in website comments such as, “…I am very proud to see this new way of preventing waste in our landfills,” and “Rock On! This is great move and congrats to those who made it happen.”

From a quantitative point of view, festival organizers have a number of stats that point to success. For example, despite a 20% increase in attendance, the festival produced the same amount of trash as in 2010. Only 40% of the waste went to landfills vs. 50% in 2010.

Want to figure out a way to make Eco-Takeouts™ work at your next event?  Contact us and we can help you!    http://ecotakeouts.com/contact.php

As a Sustainability Manager for a large food service company, Laura Weiss saw how many colleges and universities were using Eco-Takeouts™ to reduce landfill waste.  In 2010, she started GO Box, a business that provides Eco-Takeouts™ to food carts in downtown Portland, Oregon.  The containers allow customers to enjoy the convenience offered by the food carts, without having to use disposable to-go boxes.

After a pilot test with a few carts, GO Box “went live” on July 5, 2011, and now has more than 15 participating vendors and 140 subscribers.    Cart owners and customers have responded enthusiastically, and new locations are signing up each week.   The service offers three sizes: EC-09 (9”x9” high-profile, 3-compartment), EC-12 (9” x 9” low-profile/3), and the EC-11, which is 9” x 6.5”.

Process planning was a key component of the GO Box launch, just as it is with any reusable container program.  Yet the accountability system works almost the same as it does in many collegiate, healthcare, and corporate environments.  Subscribers pay an $8.50 initiation fee, which entitles them to a reusable container from any participating food cart.   Upon completing their meals, subscribers can return the container to one of several drop-off locations in downtown Portland in exchange for a token.   That token can in turn be used to receive another container the next time a food cart meal is purchased.

While collection of the used containers proved to be an initial obstacle, Laura has created solutions that work well and have generated side benefits.   For example, several brick and mortar stores agreed to maintain drop boxes.   The drop boxes bring new visitors through the doors, and some of them have become customers of these businesses. A few of the larger companies maintain drop boxes onsite at their facilities, which allow employees to return dirty containers without having to leave their buildings.  Onsite collection offers convenience for employees, and ties in to corporate sustainability initiatives.    GO Box employees empty collection boxes each day and take the containers to a commercial dishwashing facility.  Clean containers are delivered to food carts the next day and the cycle continues.

G.E.T. congratulates Laura Weiss for combining her passion for sustainability with a marketplace need to develop a viable business model.

Check back next week to read about how Laura applied her model to another venue – the Pickathon Music Festival!