IPE really goes green

Photo: Contributed

The Armstrong Fair is always about agriculture, but this year it really went green.

The annual Interior Provincial Exhibition diverted almost 7,000 pounds of organic waste from the landfill, thanks to a composting effort aided by students from Vernon's Silver Star Elementary School.

They worked with Spa Hills Compost to divert as much of the food waste and other organics as possible from the dump.

“With the generous help by a group of 52 enthusiastic and hard-working students ... we managed to keep almost 7000 pounds of organic waste out of the landfill," said Spa Hills' Keli Westgate. “We were so excited to have so much help this year. The kids were all easily trained in what to sort from bins, how to help vendors, what to say to the public when asked what they were doing ... this endeavor was a huge success.”

Food vendors at the fair were given caddies to collect compostables, and volunteers worked the food truck area to encourage the public to use compost bins placed there.

“Everyone visiting the fair this year was not only curious about it, but very supportive of our efforts to reduce waste”, said IPE manager Yvonne Paulson.

The extra effort resulted in more than five times as much compostable material being diverted compared to last year, when one person sorting through the trash collected 1,240 pounds.

“This initiative just makes sense in an agricultural area”, said Westgate, who thanked Silver Star parent Karla Ziegler for organizing the volunteers.