Keeping Arts Fest eco-friendly is an icky business
Levi Pettler rides through the Three Rivers Arts Festival on a bike, pulling a small trailer with several bags of trash and vendors’ food scraps through Point State Park to dumpsters behind the Fort Pitt Bridge, where several other members of the Green Team sort through garbage to ensure compostable and recyclable items are disposed of properly.
His pile grows larger as Mr. Pettler, a 32-year-old doctoral student in American history at Carnegie Mellon University, stops at trash stations dotting his route and swings a quick underhand throw so bags land into the cart hooked to the back of his ride. Not every throw goes this smoothly — the stiff, original Green Team shirt that Mr. Pettler wears has turned from light green to brown from a decade’s worth of slushies, sodas and other liquids that soaked him each time a bag ripped.
He drops the bags off behind the park, where Mark Potoczny, 34, and two other Green Team members stand on a platform, picking compostable and recyclable cups, utensils and food scraps from trash bags to throw into the dumpster of compost next to them. As their workspace becomes soiled and gives off the stench of leftover meat, dog excrement and old onions, they stop periodically to wipe down their tables with lemons from one of the vendors.
“Just making it smell better,” Mr. Potoczny said. “We get a box of lemons, and we just scrub a little bit so it smells nicer.”
The Green Team, a group of
about 35 contracted workers from the Pennsylvania Resources Council, Green Gears and FlySpace Productions, has spent the past 10 years sorting garbage from the festival to make sure all of the waste from vendors, which is required to be compostable or recyclable, doesn’t end up in landfills.
“[The Green Team is] passionate about the environment and the festival and limiting the festival’s impact negatively on our environment,” said Cory Cope, owner of FlySpace Productions. “It’s certainly why the festival has dedicated so much energy to doing this.”
Mr. Pettler and many of his fellow Green Team’s members got involved because they had always enjoyed attending the festival and share a passion for the environment. Over time, Mr. Pettler has formed about a dozen friendships through the Green Team, who often bond over their experiences being splashed by some of the unidentifiable sludge found at the bottom of a torn trash bag. He recalled a friend who kept working after a bag exploded over his head and trash ended up in his mouth.
“He realized that you have to deal with that when you’re throwing bags up and over into a bicycle [trailer],” Mr. Pettler said. “That’s when you know that you’ve got a good worker is when they’re willing to just spit it out and keep working.”
Since 2016, the festival has produced an average of 28 tons of waste each year, and the Green Team has helped divert about 70% of the annual waste to compost and recycling facilities, according to Emily Parker, zero waste events manager at PRC.
Each day consists of two five-hour shifts when workers make sure all compostable and recyclable items end up in the correct bins and any potential contaminants, like a 7Eleven Big Gulp cup or a McDonald’s McFlurry, remain in the landfill pile. Green Gears workers make $15 to $18 an hour at the festival, while PRC employees make between $10 and $12 per hour. FlySpace wouldn’t confirm how much its Green Team employees made.
Some Green Team members will volunteer to take two shifts in a day.
PRC also has a tent at the entrance to the festival where some Green Team members sort trash from stations scattered throughout the Point and educate visitors about which bag to toss their waste in.
“The lemonade cups are plastic to the naked eye, so you would want to recycle or throw it away, but really it’s an eco-product so they can be compostable,” said Mahallya Vaughn, a Green Team volunteer from Wilkinsburg.
Ms. Palmer said that PRC, Green Gears and FlySpace contractors also help divert waste from landfills at other events throughout Pennsylvania. Individuals also have shown interest in having compost bins and materials to make their personal events and parties more ecofriendly, she said.
“We’re seeing it as a good opportunity to educate people on recycling because of all the changes in the city [rules] and in general,” Ms. Palmer said.
In its first year, Mr. Pettler said some Green Team workers wouldn’t last more than a day, or even a full shift, of slinging and sorting festival waste. Those who have stuck around bond over “war stories” of the grossest articles they’ve uncovered — some sorters keep a pair of tongs handy for when they find soiled diapers and animal droppings.
For Mr. Pettler, trash sorting is like a different kind of treasure hunt. Sometimes he has to dig through a pile of rotting chicken before finding a a piece of art or a $10 bill, but it’s all for a good cause.
“We all have a common interest. Some of us might have PTSD through it or trauma, but it’s all just a lot of fun,” Mr. Pettler said. “It’s also something that not everyone is capable of working through. Not everyone wants to play with people’s trash.”