Jeremy Freese on Friday removed a compostable plate from a bag of compost in his trash can, which took just two hours to create.
Bo Toepfer/The Aspen Times
The Food & Wine Classic takes place in Aspen every summer, drawing tourists and hungry patrons from all over the world, but what happens to all the leftover food?
Since starting out 35 years ago by loading empty wine bottles into the back of an old pickup truck and hauling them to a recycling center, the Food & Wine Green Team has expanded its efforts and focused on reducing as much waste as possible from its events. Last year, of the 22.37 tons of waste generated, only 19 percent ended up in landfills; the rest was recycled or composted. But this year, Aspen’s strict laws about recyclable plastics have prompted the team to make an even bigger shift toward composting rather than recycling.
“Previously we also allowed recyclable service items, but now we’re requiring all exhibitors to provide compostable service items,” says Shauna Lockie, catering manager for the Grand Tasting. “Aspen has specific rules about what is considered recyclable, so to eliminate any grey areas, this year all food exhibitors in our tents are serving food on 100% commercial-grade compostable service items.”
Due to the large amount of compostable and other recyclable waste generated this year, Food & Wine installed a 31-foot composting dumpster and two dumpsters for cardboard and plastic wrap. Uneaten or unserved leftovers, food preparation waste, and serviceware will all be recycled. The composting dumpster is emptied daily, collecting more than one ton of compostable waste each day. At last year’s event, almost five tons of waste was composted; with the new compostable serviceware, that number is likely to increase this year.
An open compost bag sits in a trash can outside the Food & Wine Classic. Most of the dishes at this year’s Food & Wine are compostable. Beau Tufer/The Aspen Times
Besides the food waste that is composted, some is sent back to the distributor. Usually it’s high-value foods or unused, rare foods that the distributor can reuse later. But much of the food can be redistributed back to the local community. In fact, both composted food waste and donated food benefit the community.
“It’s (the compost) organic and it’s federally certified. We want to make sure we’re putting a really good product into the landfill, so when it goes to mountain greenery or a local ranch or the Aspen Parks Department, we want to make sure there’s no glass in there,” said Jeremy Freese, who leads the green team.
All compost processed at the Pitkin County Landfill stays within the Roaring Fork Valley. The landfill sells the compost to the public to use as fertilizer and soil. Because compost is constantly turned over, it is not as permanent as buried trash.
“Landfills have a short lifespan,” Freese said. “Anything we can do to extend and expand the lifespan of landfills will definitely help protect our local environment.”
At every tri-station (a trash bin with bags for compost, recycling, and trash), volunteers instruct guests on what trash to put where, and in case anything slips through, more volunteers inspect each bag to make sure the trash is all sorted correctly before it’s tossed in the bin.
Donations help the community as well. Food & Wine partners with Snowmass Village-based Harvest for Hunger to redistribute usable food to local businesses and organizations. Some food is donated to organizations like LIFT-UP, while perishable foods are sent to local schools, fire stations and more. Last year, Food & Wine ended up with a huge surplus of Noosa Ice Cream.
“The fire station were thrilled to receive half a pallet of Noosa ice cream,” Rocky said.
