Committment to the environment

But how can 25,000 barbecue festival goers, close to 100 cook teams, 50 crafters, plus a host of musicians, vendors, carnival rides and games, law enforcement personnel, plus hundreds of working volunteers enjoy a two-day event in a small Blue Ridge foothills community without leaving a huge environmental footprint? It seems pretty impossible, but thanks to excellent cooperation from all concerned we’re proving it can be done!

The key, according to environmental enthusiasts and Festival Committee volunteers Betsy Burdett and Katie Breckheimer, is setting realistic goals and adopting a phased approach. “We have to keep in mind that the guests are here to have a good time, and the cook teams’ main concern is putting out their best barbecue,” Burdett said. “Our job is to help folks sort their waste materials and give those resources another chance at being useful. It’s a matter of setting up a new and better system. Anytime a system changes there is a period of adjustment, and we are working to make that as easy as possible.”

What the Blue Ridge Barbecue & Music Festival committee have discovered is that people feel good about doing the right thing. They were amazed at how everybody pitched in to help. The Festival Committee accepted the challenge that Burdett and Breckheimer laid down—the “Going Green Initiative”—to reduce Festival waste by 75 percent over three years beginning with the 2006 event. In the first year, a 32 percent reduction was achieved. In the second year, festival waste was reduced by 52 percent—quite a start to an ambitious challenge.

The 2006 experience resulted in more than 1,700 pounds of recyclables being reclaimed and 4,300 pounds of food waste being converted into compost. The next year, the compost figures went way up because paper plates and napkins were composted along with the uneaten food. When wood chips and cow manure were added, it made a compost pile approximately 4 feet high, 12 feet wide, and 24 feet long! Neal Hall, director of the Polk Country transfer station, has housed and managed the compost pile for the last two years, and remains an enthusiastic supporter of the green initiative. After nine months of care and testing, the safe nutrient-rich organic matter is given away to county residents to enhance their home soils.

Thanks to the competition cook teams in Hog Heaven, who joined the effort in year two, the number of cans and bottles collected was doubled. In a spirit of cooperation, teams hung signs on their rigs which read “Proud to Join the Going Green Team.” Cardboard collection also helped push the 2007 recycling figures up. According to the Kansas City Barbecue Society, “The Blue Ridge Barbecue & Music Festival may be the first ever barbecue festival in the U.S. to undertake a green initiative of this magnitude.”

The Festival’s very first attempt at reducing waste was to recycle aluminum cans in 2005—a program that met with less than heroic results. So It was decided to take a deeper look at what, exactly, was being thrown away? How could a two-day festival in 2005 have generated more than 18 tons of garbage? A whole lot of man power and expense was going into burying discards in the ground. The Committee admitted that was quite a waste, and accepted the challenge from the Going Green Team.

Burdett and Breckheimer joined the steering committee in 2006. They accepted the responsibility for charting the course to meet the three-year objective of a 75-percent reduction in festival-generated waste. They conveniently located 15 waste/recycling centers throughout the Festival grounds. These were canopied spaces, manned by volunteers, and equipped with separate bins for recyclable drink containers, compostable food and paper, liquids, and trash. Key to their success were the friendly knowledgeable volunteers, stationed at each center to help and encourage festival attendees with proper sorting. It takes about 140 volunteers from set-up to clean-up, Thursday through Sunday.

Each year the committee has learned more about how to make it more convenient for everyone. They’ve also learned that it costs real money to enact some of these changes and have been very fortunate in attracting sponsors to help offset the costs. GDS Waste Management has underwritten the recycling centers, and St. Luke’s Hospital in Tryon has underwritten the installation of hand sanitizing stations throughout the Park. These stations dispense a ‘dry-wash’ substance that really helps cut down on hand towelettes and the packaging they come in.

Breckheimer said, “You bet we’re looking forward to this year’s Festival... Will we make it to 75% in 2008? Hope so. If not, we will certainly get closer to it, and our efforts in that direction will continue! Our motto,’Everything Counts!’ means that no one is even whispering the old saying: ‘Aw, just throw it away.’ Our discards go on to live another day and become something else useful. In our opinion, a natural resource is a terrible thing to waste!”