By Bay Stephens
BIG SKY – This July’s Big Sky PBR was
not only a success in terms of turnout and competition, but sustainability as
well, diverting 1,800 pounds of recycling from landfill and nixing single-use
plastic water bottles for eco-friendly alternatives.
And for an event with more than 7,500
total attendees, accumulating only 37 pounds of trash is pretty darn impressive,
according to 406 Recycling’s Matt Elsaesser, who oversaw recycling operations
for PBR.
While cardboard and plastic were
taken to 406 Recycling’s headquarters in Helena, aluminum landed at the
Belgrade branch of Pacific Steel and Recycling. Compostable cups will be ground
up by a local composter to become soil and the 903 pounds of glass captured at
the event will go to a cement plant in Montana City, which uses the crushed
material as a substitute for sand.
“I like glass because it’s an inert
material,” Elsaesser said. “It’s heavy to transport but has a lot of recycling
value,” especially due to the global sand shortage reported by NPR, he added.
Similar to the successful diversion
of plastic cups at the Peak to Sky Festival in earlier in the month, 406
Recycling used PVC pipes to encourage audience members to pour out liquids and
stack their cups upside down, saving on volume and decreasing contaminants collected
with the plastic.
“The quality control we got
recycling was very good,” Elsaesser said. “The cleanup crews set aside
recycling for us to pick up and the vendors were breaking down boxes [to save
on volume].”
As far as Elsaesser knows, he
devised the cup stacking system and it’s unique to 406 Recycling.
“One neat thing is when you look
back at those volumes, there wasn’t a lot of plastic bottles,” Elsaesser said.
That was deliberate, according to
Outlaw Partners Media and Events Director Ersin Ozer.
“Our goal [was] to significantly reduce single-use plastic water bottles at our events this summer, and we [partnered] with local community leaders to find solutions,” Ozer said.
In lieu of plastic water bottles,
Outlaw teamed up with the Gallatin River Task Force, Big Sky Rotary Club and
Montana Silver Springs to provide aluminum, reusable water bottles for both
Peak to Sky and Big Sky PBR.
Together, GRTF and Rotary organized
and ordered 900 28-ounce h2go Surge aluminum refillable water bottles, which
were sold near water refill stations at both events by the organizations’
representatives.
“The Gallatin River Task Force was
thrilled to partner with Rotary on this important issue of sustainability for
our community,” GRTF Director of Development Ryan Newcomb said. “Sustainable
solutions are key to water conservation efforts and both protecting and
stewarding the Gallatin Watershed as a whole.”
Blair Mohn, secretary of the Big
Sky chapter of Rotary and chair of the organization’s sustainability committee,
was excited the water bottles came together so quickly and thinks more can be
done in Big Sky.
“People want sustainability here,”
Mohn said, adding that working with Outlaw to supply the water bottles is just
one of many steps rotary intends to carry out to push forward green initiatives
in the local community. “People want to preserve the integrity of Big Sky’s
natural beauty.”
Montana Silver Springs, based in
Philipsburg, Montana, also donated 50 cases of their aluminum bottled
water—1,200 bottles—for Outlaw’s summer events.
Nolan and Cathy Smith have bottled
beer in aluminum resealable bottles since opening Philipsburg Brewing Co. in
2012, but began bottling high-alkali spring water in the same style of
containers in Oct. 2018.
“I just think it’s important to
raise people’s awareness about plastic in our environment and if our bottles
are [at these events], it puts the issue at the forefront of people’s minds,”
Smith said in June.
Aluminum has the only true closed
loop recycling process, meaning that aluminum cans can be melted down and made
into new aluminum cans indefinitely, rendering it one of the most versatile
recycling materials out there.
Big Sky PBR recycling: By the
numbers
(In pounds)
Aluminum 224
Cardboard 578
Compostable cups 6
Glass 903
Plastic 89
Trash 37
Total material diverted from the landfill 1800
