[GRRN] Woodstock Trash
Heide Feldman (hfeldman@mrwmd.org)
Tue, 3 Aug 1999 09:46:38 -0700
According to Waste News (Aug. 2, 1999), the crowd of 225,000 left hundreds
of tons of trash on the ground, 6 inches deep in some spots. According to
one solid waste mgt. official, "It looked like a landfill." Apparently,
Woodstock '99 ended in chaos, with fires and riots. Clean-up after the 3-day
event was expected to last one week, with 1,000 tons of trash to be hauled
away in rolloff containers to High Acres landfill in Rochester, NY. The
Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Mgt. Authority salvaged 61.2 tons of recyclables
as of July 30. The authority limited its recycling efforts to the vendors,
collecting corrugated containers and some beverage containers. Distribution
of recycling bins on the grounds would have created hardships for the
recycling companies having to deal with the contaminated loads, according to
Mike Wolak, director of engineering for the solid waste authority. "It
would've never, in a million years, worked, he said. "You've got to be
realistic in that kind of a situation."
According to the Waste News article, Miller Brewing Co. sold beer in its new
16-oz. plastic bottles. The company set up its own recycling boxes around
the site, many of which the fans turned into garbage cans.
They also turned some of the steel drums provided for trash into actual
drums.
Note: I plan to use this article with middle and high school students in our
school program during the next school year, along with the discussion about
the coke campaign.
Heidi Feldman
Public Education Coordinator
Monterey Regional Waste Management District
P.O. Box 1670, Marina, CA 93933
Tel.: 831/384-5313 FAX: 831/384-3567
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before
starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank