I honestly can't say that I'm suprised, I get to see it at work all the time (I'm a custodian for a university) with our own limited recycling. However, it works at our local Ren faire. Several reasons it works (I think): 1.) All of the food vendors use recyclable products. Paper cups, recyclable plastic utensils, paper plates. No styrafoam, no non-recyclable plastics. 2.) Limited waste stations. Vendors do not have garbage at their booths, there are only a few places where you can dispose of your trash. Each station has seperate bins for each type of recyclable waste, one for compostable materials, and one for trash (there is very little, but there are some items which are not recyclable). 3.) Recycling ... wardens? Each waste station has a volunteer standing at it who will "remind" people to sort their trash as they put it into the bins. Some of these people attend in period costume, and, for some reason, I have yet to see anyone argue with them. I believe they also have a way to contact someone to empty the bins if they get full. Honestly, I'm not even sure if they had the "wardens" at the last ren fair, sorting garbage there has just become habit. While the convention center may not be able to organize something like this for normal usage, you might be able to get them to help in implementing something like this for Origins, at least to start with. -----Original Message----- From: eco-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:eco-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rebecca Stallings Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 8:56 PM To: Eco Foundation Discussion List Subject: [Eco] the news on Origins If you went to Origins this year, you probably heard my confusion as to whether the convention center was recycling or not. After some research, I've got the straight story, and it's sad news. I also wrote up an account of the whole Origins recycling saga, and I finally put my 2004 recycling report online (Looney Labs got busy with something else and never put it onto their site), and the whole shebang is available in my new blog: http://blog.earthlingshandbook.org/2007/07/30/origins-recycling.aspx I hope there'll be happier updates to add later. Right now it ends on a downer, despite my attempts to be inspiring. :-( ---'Becca _______________________________________________ Eco mailing list Eco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.looneylabs.com/mailman/listinfo/eco