Greening Bumbershoot

Waste

In 2008 Bumbershoot recycled 7.5 tons of waste, decreasing our garbage by 2.7 tons from 2007. We continue to make reduction of Festival waste and recycling a top priority.

Eco Extra: Seattleites recycle about 50% of their waste, yet still generate about 440,000 tons of solid waste annually. Where does it all go? This waste is sent by rail to privately held landfills in Eastern Oregon.

Eco Extra: The purpose of a landfill is to bury the trash so it’s isolated from groundwater, air and moisture—a difficult environment for decomposition to occur. This disposal is unlike compost piles, where the waste breaks down into earth’s naturally occuring elements. Landfills don’t go away, remaining a permanent fixture of our landscape.

Vendors

Since 1980 the use of Styrofoam has been banned for all Bumbershoot vendors. Today Festival vendors are asked to reduce their waste by composting all pre-consumer waste and recycling their grease into future biodiesel fuel. In 2008, vendors composted approximately 2 tons of pre-consumer waste.

Composting

Compost stations will be set-up around the Festival grounds for fans hoping to reduce their waste. Food scraps and yard debris make up about 25% of garbage. In a landfill it can take years for these materials to decompose, wasting a valuable resource. Home composting is a different composting process than that performed at a commercial composter. Local commercial composter, Cedar Grove Composting, carefully manages an 18-month process, carefully engineered for air flow, moisture content and temperatures of up to 130Â° F.