Minneapolis recycler offers tips for collaborating on events

Earlier this month, ACE Solid Waste, Ramsey, Minnesota, teamed with Eureka Recycling, Minneapolis, to boost recycling efforts at the Minnesota State Fair, which took place Aug. 23 to Sept. 3 in St. Paul, Minnesota. According to event organizers, the fair has announced recent goals to meet “zero waste” policies. 

Danielle Dullinger, marketing and social media supervisor for the Minnesota State Fair, says achieving zero waste can be challenging with nearly 900 tons of waste generated from fair events. She says it’s been important for the fair to have a strong partnership with ACE Solid Waste and Eureka Recycling as well as its own sanitation crew to improve its recycling efforts.

“We have our own sanitation crew of 200 people who worked 24/7 to remove the trash and recycling to a recycling center on the fairgrounds,” Dullinger says. From there, she notes that its partners would collect materials to take to a material recovery facility (MRF). 

Through the partnership with the Minnesota State Fair, Lynn Hoffman, co-president at Eureka Recycling, says ACE Solid Waste collects and pre-sorts recyclables and waste from the Minnesota State Fair, then it sends the recyclables to Eureka. 

“[Ace Solid Waste] doesn’t have their own MRF,” Hoffman adds. “So, we work in partnership with them. They bring recycling to us on a daily basis. It was a natural fit for them to work with us [at the fair].”

Dullinger notes ACE Solid Waste has helped collect and sort fair recyclables and waste since 2014, and Eureka has partnered with the fair since the mid-2000s. 

Hoffman says Eureka partners with other various small events in the Twin Cities to promote recycling. She notes that there are certainly challenges tied to event recycling, and she says one of the biggest challenges is making sure event vendors use recyclable materials. 

“It’s challenging to sort at the end when you have all kinds of materials. There are so many vendors at the fair that they had trouble getting them all to use PET cups or all-compostable takeout material,” Hoffman says. 

Hoffman and Dullinger offered the following tips for recyclers on best practices for partnering on events: 

• Prepare ahead of time: Hoffman says recyclers that want to partner to provide services for an event need to work with the event planner and vendors months beforehand to find out what materials and containers vendors will be using. 
• Keep it simple: In addition to planning ahead, Hoffman recommends working with event planner and vendors to make the recycling program as seamless as possible, so event volunteers and attendees know what’s recyclable. She notes that recyclers should encourage food vendors to use the same types of compostable containers. “The more complicated you make it, then it leads to contamination,” she says. “It’s really about choosing a path on how to streamline it.” 
• Educate attendees before and during events: Dullinger adds that event attendees need to be well informed for the program to work and achieve its zero waste initiatives. “You need to make it as easy on the attendees as possible,” she says. “We posted on social media for pre-event education. And on [receptacles at the fair], we put wraps around them that shows what goes there—cups, pop bottles, etc.”