The Ever Green Harmony Festival
Greening is a VERB ~
an action verb of the highest order and requires everyone’s participation! Green Mary brings it all back to where it started, as together we focus on making as little trash as possible, building soil from our organic waste, and maximizing reuse by concentrating on our individual habits. Good housekeeping for Mother Earth means behaving out at public events the way we do at home where we are stewards of our resources.
 The green team has a blast while maximizing recycling and composting at public events. We’ve got some bumps on the road to sane and sustainable living which are really there to give us air time to launch onto new behaviors and systems. If you’ve been enjoying the super greening the past five years, please check out the significant changes for 2008.
But first ~ the greenest way to get here and be here
Carpool, bring along friends, fill your empty seats, take public transit and save on parking, spare the air.
Pack your canvas bag or backpack with your reusable plate, mug, utensils and cloth napkins for the day, or if you’re camping, pack everything you need to take care of your needs while taking care of the planet!
Once here, know that we are composting everything we can and that there are EcoStations throughout the Harmony Festival at which to deposit everything. Non-disposable – fuel tanks for your cook stoves, batteries, etc. Bring all hazardous waste to any dumpster area, where we have special containers, or to Harmony Central and we will dispose of it properly. Here and at home, it is ill-advised and illegal to deposit these materials in the regular trash.
No more bioplastics in the compost
We’ve been sending all our organic waste to Sonoma Compost for making into soil, including biodegradable plastics, but for the time being, at least, the facility cannot accept these plant-based plastics. All plastic utensils, cups, lids and straws go in the garbage, which we call “landfill” here.
 At Sonoma Compost, they can take all our yard waste and food scraps in the green containers curbside. Last year, we filled four huge dumpsters with food scraps and all our organic waste!
Composting
We are still composting ALL food scraps, including meat and bones, all paper food service supplies – plates, hot cups and napkins. All food vendors are provided compost containers and we will still generate a lot of good soil from the event!
Recycle in the Blue Cans:
All plastic food containers, glass bottles, aluminum cans, all publications, office paper, paper bags, and cardboard. No glass on the festival grounds.
To the Landfill in the black cans:
Plastic lids, straws, utensils, cups, bags and bottle caps, mylar wrappers, potato chip bags, foil lined juice boxes. Get it? Mostly plastics – move beyond them. How do we live without??? More importantly – how do we live WITH? Google “toxic plastics” for a deep, dark read and a swim in the expanding plastic Pacific gyre, then come up for air to rethink personal and planetary health, desires, connections and habits.
What could be a set back is an opportunity as we have the big reason to BRING OUR OWN dishware, utensils, coffee mugs and cups. There is a dishwashing station on the map, back by the dumpsters, come say “Hi” to the haulers and sorters who slave to keep us green!
Water and hydrating
Always a big issue at summer events in Northern California, Green Mary has been bringing free water refill stations to public events for years, but we have a bumpy road. The free water refill stations we have offered and enjoyed for the past four years will not be present, so please pack in your own bulk water to your campsite and refill there, bring plenty of water into the festival, look for the couple of water fountains at the fairgrounds, or be prepared to buy bottled water from vendors.
Join Green Mary, the Think Outside the Bottle or Green Sangha Rethinking Plastics campaigns to help us move toward sustainable solutions.
Saving trees
2008 is the year we stop using trees to wipe our hands and mouths. At The Harmony Festival and everywhere, bring and use your own cloth napkins. Ever handy for multiple purposes, they help the lungs of the planet go on making oxygen for us. Clip ‘em with a safety pin to your waistband, your back pack or your purse strap, carry extras for friends. They are a great ice breaker for a green introduction as you offer up an inexpensive, invaluable gift.
Cleaning Up
We are mostly volunteers taking care of the grounds this weekend, so please help us out. Clean up the area around your blanket, around your campsite, call Green Mary on her cell to let us know about overflowing recycling containers, we can’t be everywhere at once. 707-548-7582 – or call to volunteer to help even further as we model sustainable event production.
Green Mary
www.green-mary.com
Good Housekeeping for Mother Earth
707-824-4736
 Green Mary |
