Staff Reports
Local recycling officials will use a grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Community Recycling program to support recycling at all four weekends of Ethnic Expo 2021 in Columbus.
Energy Matters Community Coalition, acting as fiscal agent for the Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District’s (BCSWMD) Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) received the grant from IDEM in April.
Ethnic Expo dates for this summer are Juneteenth on June 19th, the Chinese Festival on Aug. 28th, the Ganesh Festival on Sept. 11th, and Fiesta Latina on Oct. 2nd. The organization will pilot a zero-landfill event during the final expo weekend on Oct. 2.
Since 1983, the City of Columbus has hosted Ethnic Expo, an authentic cultural experience including food, entertainment, and a parade in downtown Columbus. The event draws over 30,000 people from Bartholomew County and surrounding communities and results in tons of waste added to our landfill, including a large amount of Styrofoam, the solid waste management district staff said.
In past years, the city has tried to increase recycling from the event, but because of contamination most if not all of the waste still ended up in the landfill. Due to the pandemic, the plan this year is to host four smaller Saturday events, each focusing on a different culture.
The Bartholomew County Solid Waste Management District’s Citizens Advisory Committee is made up of community volunteers interested in educating the public about reducing the amount of trash that is deposited in our local landfill.
The CAC is partnering with Energy Matters Community Coalition in the Ethnic Expo waste diversion efforts.
Energy Matters Community Coalition is an organization of citizens in Columbus focusing on public education and local actions that support sustainability, with a special emphasis on energy conservation and global warming.
The advisory committee will recruit local residents to serve as waste station volunteers for each event to help attendees appropriately sort their trash into recycling, landfill, and composting at the October event only. The volunteers will weigh all recyclables and trash the first three weekends of events and weigh all recyclables, compostables, and trash for the final event to show how much waste was diverted from the landfill.
It is projected that 1,400 to 3,200 pounds of materials will be diverted from the landfill with this effort.
Those who have attended public events in this county in the past know that a lot of trash is generated and not very much is recycled. “The waste just comes in too fast and many event attendees don’t understand which containers go in the trash and which go in the recycling,” said Kelly Geckler from the advisory committee. “This year we aim to make it easy for people, have enough well-marked bins, and have volunteers on site to help.”
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For questions regarding the recycling project or to find out how to volunteer, contact Kelly Geckler, 812-371-2175.
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