Calgary Lilac Festival

Thousands of people attending 2019's Lilac Festival.

Festivals are a great opportunity to get outside and see your community while along the way enjoying good food and seeing some great entertainment! However, at many large scale events, the abundance of disposable food containers poses a huge environmental issue- one of which has an easy solution that can avoid long term consequences.

The Lilac Festival is one of these events that is targeting the issue head on. Last year, they aimed to have at least 50% of all their food containers be compostable, and this year they are aiming for 75%.

FOR SOME PERSPECTIVE:

• Plastic drinking cups and Styrofoam containers take hundreds of years to break down under the right conditions

• Many plastics also do not break down fully, often going into water systems and breaking down into “microplastics”, pieces of plastic <5mm that still cause issues to ecosystems and wildlife

• When plastics break down, they also can leach toxic chemicals into soils and ecosystems, while biodegradable materials do not

• Compostable or biodegradable food containers will degrade at a much faster rate when disposed properly in composting facilities, often taking 2-12 weeks to fully decompose, and leaving no harmful traces behind

With the proper initiative from event leaders and vendors, these changes can be implemented so that events can become environmentally conscious. These steps are crucial in preventing items that are used for such a short amount of time from staying with us for hundreds of years following.