It is not hard to find a Street Fair between April and September. Whether it is a music festival, an art show, a craft fair or local merchants selling products to the locals on a Friday night on Main Street, people enjoy local events. No matter the event, their appeal is generally improved with the promise of food and good music.

Food is best enjoyed with a group of friends and adds to the fun of the event. But with food comes waste, so let’s look at some ways that we can mitigate or eliminate the waste from busy events, and even put the waste to use inside the community without having to place anything in a landfill.

If it is summer time, you can bet that burgers, hot dogs, ribs or pizza will be on the menu. All of these delicious food items are generally served on a disposable plate. Instead of simply coming up with a way to dispose of the trash from the street fair, plan in advance and serve food items on EnviroTakeout's selection of compostable disposable plates instead of traditional foam plates. If the cups, cutlery, straws, and napkins were all made from a compostable material like sugar cane or bamboo, which are both annually renewable materials, we could compost all of the disposable tableware items. That compost could then be used by folks at the local community garden or could be sold to the town’s residents for use in their own yard to grow plants, herbs and maybe even products to be sold at next month’s street fair.

Many communities around the country have a commercial composting facility in the community or close by in a neighboring town. There are thousands of composting locations throughout the country and they need this raw material to keep their operations going. Rather than dumping a lot of foam plates and cups in the local landfill to fill up that space and cause the community to eventually look for a new landfill location, why not just compost all of the tableware items and food scraps and turn it into something useful. It just takes a little planning and cooperation to achieve great results.