As we wrap up another fabulous summer, we’re excited to share the results of our composting collection at local events. It’s been a season of learning, growth, and heaps of success—quite literally! Here’s a look at how our composting efforts have made a difference.

Snapshot of our Major Events

We successfully implemented composting programs at over 200 local events this summer. No event is too large or too small to make a difference with composting. While we provide services for weddings, backyard parties, and family get-togethers, this is a snapshot of compost our community collected at Missoula’s summer 2024 major events:

Kettlehouse Concerts = 78,000 lbs

Western Montana Fair = 52,000lbs

Caras Park Events = 23,400 lbs

Washington-Grizzly Stadium Concerts = 10,800 lbs

Missoula PaddleHeads = 8,550 lbs

The Clark Fork River Market = 7,200 lbs

River City Roots Fest = 6,000 lbs

Missoula Pride = 5,700 lbs

Missoula Marathon = 4,350 lbs

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Total Event Compost Collected = 196,050 lbs

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With the help of Missoulians, we diverted nearly 200,000 lbs of organic waste produced by local events this summer! For comparison, that is equivalent to 15 full-size elephants, 59 compact cars, or 80,000 bunches of bananas. Locally, we managed to prevent 143,300 net pounds of CO2 emissions by composting instead of landfilling. This equates to the CO2 production of driving an average passenger car 138,567 miles. By Christmas, these collections will be fully decomposed into nutrient-rich compost. What a great gift our community has prepared for our local soil!

Event Highlights

**The Western Montana Fair**

Our biggest singular event was the Western Montana Fair. In 2023, we helped divert 74% of event waste into renewable streams. This year, we aimed to achieve an 80% diversion rate.

With the help of vendors, fair staff, Home ReSource, green team volunteers and donors, and 110,600 fair attendees, Missoulians were able to **divert 82% of all waste produced by the local fair!** Compost alone accounted for 73% of total waste - 9% more than in 2023. Instead of being buried in local hills, sitting stagnant, these valuable resources are being composted and will be ready to be introduced into our local soil next spring.

A giant thank you to everyone who supported waste separation at The Western Montana Fair!

Washington-Grizzly Stadium

The concert series in August at the Washington Griz Stadium was an astounding success! These concerts featured Pearl Jam, Tyler Childers, and P!nk. Composting efforts were so successful that the University of Montana Sustainability Team has begun a composting trial for Grizzly football games.
September 28th was both a win for the Griz and for composting efforts! Our compost bins at the end of the event were full and contained minimum contamination that was easily sorted out.
Keep a look out for our bins at future stadium events!

Achieved through Teamwork and Supporting Programs

Missoula Compost could not make this change alone. It takes the participation of event organizers, volunteers, donors, supporting non-profits, and all event attendees to make sustainable choices. Your enthusiasm and commitment were evident, and it helped ensure that the right materials ended up in the compost bins.

A big shout out to Home ReSource and their volunteers for running the Green Team; helping to guide and encourage proper sorting and disposal. Thanks to the Missoula Downtown Partnership for supporting compost at all downtown events and Logjam Presents for making big sustainable efforts at all concerts here in Missoula.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who attended these local events, and supported bands, vendors, farmers, and artists. It’s your small choices every day that make the biggest difference in our community. We are proud to be a part of Missoula’s rich community!

Home Resources and Green Team volunteers at the Western Montana Fair. They weathered heat, rain showers, and thunderstorms to keep Missoula's waste streams clean!

No Change Comes without Challenges

Variety of Disposable Servingware

Even with the help of Home ReSource volunteers, the sheer number of different disposable items provided by various vendors at events was a constant struggle; confusing for both well-meaning attendees and volunteers. Next year we plan to communicate better with vendors on the importance of utilizing compostable servingware. We have already begun increasing educational material that will help vendors differentiate greenwashed vs trustworthy compostable products. The fewer types of disposable serving ware Missoula can have at events, the easier it will be to keep our compost bins clean with less effort from attendees and our hard-working volunteers.

Quality Organics in Landfill Bin

Another challenge we faced at events was valuable organics being tossed in the landfill bin. We hand-sorted large organic materials from the landfill bin into our compost bins such as pineapples, lemons, and large amounts of uneaten food. These items are both the saddest things to see in the landfill bin and the most fulfilling items to rescue. In the following year, we will support vendors serving nutrient-rich products like fresh fruit, salads, and other rich compost materials to communicate better with their customers about compost options at the event.

Ambiguous Signage

Lastly, we experienced confusion because of the lack of clarity of posted signage. Composting is not common knowledge to a lot of the community and we still have a long way to go before the majority of people are comfortable with making informed disposal decisions. Signage proved difficult with lots of confusion surrounding “Cardboard” and “Plastics”. For example, clean cardboard can be recycled, but dirty cardboard needs to be composted. Plastics and bio-plastics were also a common conversation; PLA-based (i.e. compostable) plastics look so similar to petroleum-based plastics, that attendees had difficulty telling the difference. These were common misconceptions that led to much confusion and overwhelm when deciding on disposal options. We plan to attack this challenge with creativity and simplicity. Developing signage with simple icons, clear wording, and expanded education before events will be key to combat misconceptions and reduce confusion.

Despite these challenges, we managed to hand-sort any contamination that ended up in our compost bins. With every year we compost, we learn more about how to support a strong sustainable community. We understand that many people are trying to do the right thing, but are struggling with limited knowledge, confusing products, and stimulus overwhelm. Anything we can do to limit these barriers will aid event attendees be more confident in waste separation. We are determined to continuously develop more efficient and effective ways for Missoula to compost every day in every way.

Goals for the Future

Based on this summer’s success, we’re excited to expand our composting programs next year. We plan to incorporate more interactive elements and continue refining our processes to make composting even easier and more effective. Major projects include:

Increase community education opportunities
Community meetings discussing composting efforts
Improve vendor access to compostable products
Increase compost education at local businesses, including voluntary audits to improve sustainability.
Exploring partnerships with local businesses to further promote and support composting initiatives.

We’re excited to reach these goals in the next year and would love to hear your feedback or ideas on future projects. Feel free to reach out via email (info@missoulacompost.com), or phone ((406)-370-5876), or catch us at local events throughout Missoula.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to this season’s composting success—your passion and dedication have made a tangible difference. Together, we’ve shown that composting at events can be both fun and impactful. Here’s to continuing this great work and making even more strides toward a greener, more sustainable future!

Your friends at Missoula Compost

Trash to Treasure: 2024 Event Waste Diversion Highlights