Earth Day festival to educate on waste reduction and sustainability

Learning how to properly conserve natural resources and recycle could save the planet — so say the organizers of the Columbia Area Earth Day Festival, set to take place Sunday in Peace Park.

“There’s a lot of opportunity to be educated about how we can be kinder to the Earth,” said Jody Cook, volunteer programs specialist for the City of Columbia.

“Even avid recyclers have so much to learn. Understanding that recycling correctly within your community’s program is critical to making systems efficient,” said Cook, who has rounded up 54 volunteers to help with waste reduction and recycling education at the event.

Since 1990, the Earth Day Coalition has coordinated with local nonprofit organizations and the city to host the annual fair of public programs and workshops aimed at teaching the public on how they can contribute to reducing waste and adopting sustainable energy practices.

Around 10,000 people came out to the event last year, said Laura Wacker, sustainability education coordinator for Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. Weather permitting, Wacker, who also serves as Earth Day coordinator, hopes to top those numbers this year.

For Wacker and the other event organizers, the message of Earth Day is critical.

“We’re getting to the tipping point as far as trying to protect the Earth and make it last for future generations,” she said. “If people don’t start paying attention, we’re going to get to a point of no return.”

This year’s Earth Day offers the public ample opportunity to get educated, with three different workshops focused on compost, solar energy and mushroom farming, respectively.

“Our compost workshops are meant to teach residents throughout the area about the importance of composting our food waste and yard waste,” said Cook, who organized the compost workshops.

According to Cook, over 35 percent of material that makes it into a landfill is compostable. “If we all learned to compost, we would be able to divert that waste from the landfill and produce a very rich soil amendment. Composting is nature’s way to recycle.”

Cook also emphasized that recycling is a local process.

“For a community to recycle a material it has to have a system to sort and market for the material,” Cook said. “If all of these things aren’t in place the material can’t be collected.”

Cook said that lack of understanding leads to heavy contamination of would-be recyclable materials. Columbia has dual stream recycling, meaning that containers and fibers must be recycled separately. Additionally, some materials that are recyclable elsewhere, such as milk cartons, are not recyclable here.

But reducing waste and mainstreaming renewable energy resources will take political cooperation in addition to public education. And influencing environmental policy takes money.

For that reason, Renew Missouri, a Columbiabased non-profit that lobbies to pass more renewable energy legislation in the Missouri General Assembly, decided to use this year’s Earth Day festivities as a fundraising opportunity. The non-profit is hosting the Renew Missouri Earth Day 5K, which will start at 8 a.m. Sunday in Flat Branch Park and follow along the MKT Trail.

“We get a lot of grant funding for our group, but that does not cover lobbying expenses which is a lot of what we do,” said James Owen, executive director of Renew Missouri. “The run will expand who is hearing our message.”

For a $35 fee, anyone can sign up for the run up until start time. All proceeds will go to the group’s environmental lobbying causes. Owen said that success in Jefferson City depends on the support of the entire community, not just full-time environmental activists.

“This will take all of us to make these policies a reality. It will take all of us to convince large corporations that renewable energy and renewable resources are good for their products, market and the society they are working in,” Owen said.

Beyond raising money, Owen echoed the other organizers, emphasizing Earth Day as an educational opportunity for people who care about protecting the environment, but aren’t necessarily aware of the best practices on how to help.

“Most people turn on a light switch and a light comes on — and they don’t really think about it. People can really empower themselves on becoming more educated and engaged as citizens on these issues,” Owen said.

Live music, dozens of informational booths and food will round out the all-day event.