GILROY
– It may be hard to believe, but not every morsel of
garlic-seasoned food will be consumed by the crowds expected at
this weekend’s festival.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – It may be hard to believe, but not every morsel of garlic-seasoned food will be consumed by the crowds expected at this weekend’s festival.
Garlic Festival vendors will be able to recycle their food waste, sparing local landfills thousands of pounds’ worth of waste, thanks to an expansion of the composting program piloted at last year’s festival.
The Gilroy Garlic Festival Association, in partnership with South Valley Disposal and Recycling and the City of Gilroy, also is continuing the ongoing festival-wide recycling program.
Last year, about a dozen food-related vendors participated in the program that picks up food waste to be deposited into a composting facility at the Pacheco Pass Landfill, where it will be composted with green waste into a soil amendment.
“We’re just adding more vendors than we had the year before,” said Lisa Jensema, environmental programs coordinator for the city. “We started out slow because it was just easier that way.”
The food waste recycling program last year diverted nearly 2,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill, she said. More than that should be recycled this weekend, as roughly 20 vendors have already signed up.
This weekend, food vendors will collect food waste in 32-gallon plastic recycling bins on wheels, similar to the garbage and yard waste receptacles distributed by the city to residents. The new plastic bins, with lids and lined with biodegradable bags, replace cardboard boxes lined with the bags used in the pilot program last year, which Jensema said “wasn’t the best method for collecting” food waste.
If food waste recycling at the 26th festival is as successful as it was last year, Jensema said the program will continue to expand in the future.
“We can never get enough food waste out of the waste stream,” Jensema said.
Festival organizers also hope to increase the amount of bottles and cans recycled this weekend. The items can be recycled in blue, 96-gallon containers located throughout the festival, Jensema said.
Recycling increased 216 percent last year, with festival-goers recycling nearly 24 tons of waste.
“We’re going to recycle all the cardboard from the festival,” Jensema said.
The 4,000 volunteers who work the festival and eat in the Hospitality area will be asked to put their food waste and biodegradable plates, napkins and utensils into food waste carts.
Besides benefiting the environment, the composting and recycling programs are a cost-saving measure for the festival association, meaning more money can be passed on to volunteers and local community groups. Last year, the association saved $6,695 in disposal costs thanks to Garlic Festival recycling efforts.
