Case Study: Jazz in the Park

RECYCLING AT A CONCERT SERIES
Jazz in the Park, Milwaukee, WI

Jazz in the Park is a weekly series of free outdoor concerts featuring exciting local and national jazz performers that extend through summer into early fall in Cathedral Square Park located in Downtown Milwaukee. The concerts are sponsored by Milwaukee’s East Town Association and draw a crowd of 2,800 – 3,500 people each week. Concert-goers bring picnics or enjoy food and beverages from local vendors.

Recycling at Jazz in the Park handles a myriad of materials that attendees carry in or buy from vendors. The program operates in a fast-paced crowded setting thanks to cooperation between a number of groups.

Strategies – Visitors recycle a variety of cans and bottles at Jazz in the Park. Vendors recycle cardboard and glass bottles.

Who’s Involved – The East Town Association coordinates arrangements with the grounds crew and hauler. The Downtown Clean Sweep Ambassadors provide grounds crew services. The City of Milwaukee Sanitation Division loans recycling carts to the event and empties the carts after each concert.

How it Operates – The East Town Association arranges to borrow blue recycling carts from the City of Milwaukee Resource Recovery Office. The carts were donated by the vendor that makes residential recycling carts for the City and look much like the carts Milwaukeeans use for recycling at home. Round holes in the tops and signs encourage concert-goers to place empty cans and bottles inside. On concert days, members of the Downtown Clean Sweep Ambassadors move the carts next to trash barrels dispersed in the park.

Audiences are reminded to recycle with announcements during the concert introduction and intermission. The materials gathered include PET plastic bottles, metal cans and a lot of glass bottles. A wine vendor uses a blue cart placed within reach of the servers. Vendors discard cardboard wine and beer cases and are asked to flatten and stack them near their areas.

When the concert ends, carts are pushed to their curbside pick-up location in a corner of the park. Stacked cardboard is left on the ground near the carts. Early the next morning, a City of Milwaukee truck empties the carts with an automated lifter and the driver collects the cardboard.

The carts are stored in the park between concerts, locked to a cable behind the stage.

Benefits – Adding recycling has made the job of the grounds crew easier and safer. When glass was discarded along with trash, the weight of the liner bags pulled from the trash barrels created a lifting hazard, as well as a danger from the broken glass protruding from bags. Now, most glass is contained in the wheeled carts and a machine does the lifting.

A recent concert season yielded 4.5 tons of recyclables with low contamination – a staggering total for a program that operates just 2½ hours a week. Recycling accounts for about 1/3 of the volume of the waste generated at the event and a much higher portion of its weight. Event organizers reported that the park looked cleaner after recycling was added.

Many concert-goers make a point of thanking the East Town Association for having recycling at the concerts.

Challenges – The recycling program took shape over time as difficulties were faced and solutions were tested. A set of eye-catching recycling bins made of recycled soda bottles were used first. Removing liner bags from the bins was next to impossible when glass bottles piled up inside, and bags would sometimes break under the weight. The presence of heavy materials made wheeled carts the best style of recycling bins for Jazz in the Park.

While contamination in recycling bins is low, recyclable cans and bottles make their way into the trash, particularly where a trash barrel is not paired with a recycling bin. The concerts could capture more recyclables with more carts, but the borrowed supply is limited. Some materials are removed from the trash (and the ground and perhaps recycling bins) as “unofficial” recycling begins late at night when scavengers comb the park for aluminum cans. The carts are kept locked to a cable between events as a precaution against their removal for use by a scavenger. The can collectors have posed no problems and coexist with the organized clean-up operations. Cardboard recycling could be increased with extra curbside pick-up points or a means of conveying boxes to the collection place that is better than hand-carrying by crew members after concerts end.

The Downtown Clean Sweep Ambassadors provided important input for refining the recycling program. They observed the workings of the program as they took part in conducting it and gave useful suggestions for improved recycling.