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

One of the tools AASHE provides is The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a self-reporting structure to help schools measure their progress toward sustainability. STARS includes incentives for continual improvement and innovation. It also emphasizes collaboration over competition by encouraging schools to share best practices.

There are three primary categories of STARS credits: Education and Research, Operations, and Planning, and Administration & Engagement. Credits can be earned in the fourth category of Innovation as well.

Foodservice management falls under Category 2 – Operations. Credits can be earned for sustainable activities in food purchasing and waste reduction. Syracuse University, for example, won the AASHE 2009 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award. Use of Eco-Takeouts™ was cited as one of many factors in Syracuse’s selection.

Are you ready to be a STAR? Find out more about the AASHE STARS program at and about implementing reusable containers at www.ecotakeouts.com.