Waste-Free JamPacked Event a Success!

We had a blast at the JamPacked Craft Beer and Music Festival on Brown’s Island this past weekend!  Keep Virginia Beautiful was pleased to be invited by WestRock, who presented the festival, as the charity beneficiary.  The craft beer and music festival was a win-win-win-win event:

     Win #1:  WestRock provides innovative packaging solutions with sustainability in mind, and had many of their craft beer clients on hand to show off and talk about their products;

     Win #2:  JamPacked was a model example of a waste-free large-scale event for others to use for future planning;

     Win #3:  Keep Virginia Beautiful was the charity beneficiary of the event, and we also had a chance to meet people and give away stuff to help others reduce waste;

     Win #4:  The public got to experience how a large event can be waste-free by just doing things a little differently!

There was the expectation that the because the event was waste-free, it would be clean and green, an attitude that was welcomed by the people we met there — they didn’t want to see Brown’s Island full of litter, or bags of trash going to the landfill, or the ground littered with cigarette butts and wrappers at the end of the evening.  The grass was refreshingly free of littered paper and plastic, and people were happy to use the recycling bins, cigarette butt containers, and composting bins, even with thousands of people in attendance!

Here’s some examples of the sustainable practices that we experienced at JamPacked. You can use these ideas at your next sports, school, faith community, or family event to create your own waste-free celebration:

Paperless ticketing: With most everyone having access to a cell phone, it’s easier than ever to eliminate paper tickets.  Free or low-cost platforms such as Eventbrite will walk you through the process.

Canned beverages:  Using soft drinks or adult beverages that come in aluminum cans means they can be recycled instead of sent to the landfill.

Paperboard food packaging:  Ditch the Styrofoam and plastic plates, cups, and utensils; aim for bamboo, paperboard, and other recyclable products.  In the Richmond area, N.O.P.E. (Natural Organic Process Enterprises) is a composting center.  Some restaurants accept food scraps and compostable products.

Composting food scraps:  The Green Team members worked hard at JamPacked to help people sort out their food scraps from the compostable plates and utensils.  It’s easy to compost food waste in your own backyard with the correct location for sun and water, with or without a purchased bin.

No single-use plastic bottles of water:  Say good-bye to the expense and hassle of getting cases of single-use bottled water at the store!  Refillable water bottles are attractive, sturdy, hold a greater quantity, and refillable!  You can even use refillable bottles as a giveaway (or fundraiser)  in team colors for your special event.

Pocket ashtrays: or other fire-proof containers to collect cigarette butts; the butts we collected will be sent to TerraCycle at no cost to be recycled into a park bench!

Thank you again WestRock for showing RVA the positive impact of a waste-free event, as well as the supporting sponsors, the vendors, bands, breweries, and guests who attended!

The music was jammin’ all day long!

Dirty Dan’s Delectable Dyes