Finding Ulysses

The people behind the Grassroots Festival have always been dedicated to putting the good at the center of good and groovy, and this year, they’re adding a new feature to their Trumansburg event (July 16 to 19) – composting the apparently uncompostable.

“Festivals can be terrifying feats of excess, leaving giant piles of useless garbage in their wake, but they don’t have to be. We can do our part to keep our footprint closer to neutral,” writes Megan Romer, the marketing director of the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance on the Grassroots Blog.

Grassroots isn’t just shrugging its shoulders and asking people to put their litter in the garbage cans. This year, ever more materials will be going into the Grassroots compost – not just food, but disposable cups, plates and utensils as well. It looks like ordinary plastic, Romer explains, but it’s actually a kind of polymer that can break down in industrial or municipal composting facilities into the same constituent parts as a stalk of corn.

“Yes, it’s convenient to bring a big ol’ sleeve of plastic cups for your campsite margaritas,” Romer says, “but if you bring reusable cups (or even compostable ones – you actually can find them in some better-stocked organic grocery stores), you’ll be part of the solution.”

Better-stocked organic grocery stores? Grassrootsians won’t need to look that far. Right across the street, at ShurSave, they sell compostable cups made by Fabri-Kal. I bought some just about a week ago for one of my son’s school projects.

If I were a manager over at ShurSave, I’d start arranging to stock some extras…