On November 10, 2001 San Luis Obispo County Parks hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of our Zero Waste Park at Dairy Creek Golf Course. Of course, it's not actually finished, rather just getting started. We have the composting, vermiculture and compost tea demonstrations finished and working. We're working on a snazzy recycling demonstration that emphasizes the need for responsible sorting. If each individual on the course or at home would just take a little more care to sort their waste products, it would make a world of difference at the landfill or recycle facility.
At Dairy Creek, we've gotten rid of all the trash cans but one. Instead, we've installed more recycle and compost containers. Above the containers, we've posted attractive signs listing items commonly found on site and into which container they are to be placed. Our golfers figured it out immediately! The thing about golf courses is that, more than most other venues, golf course waste streams are relatively easy to predict. We still have some work to do...as example, we haven't been able to get the food and beverage concessionaire to get rid of the plastic coated coca cola cups that they get for free from the beverage supplier. Seems that recyclable cups are much more costly. Maybe we can raise some funds to help offset the cost of making the change. We're also struggling with those little coffee creamer cups and catsup blister packs. Although they're plastic, they're so small that they don't get sorted very well in the mechanized materials recovery facility (recycle sorting facility).
All-in-all, the food and beverage folks are really doing a great job of supporting our zero waste initiative. They're sorting out approximately 120 lbs of food waste for composting every day. They have really cleaned up their trash and recycle dumpsters. Used to be that their trash dumpster was overflowing with food waste and recycle materials. Now, the trash dumpster is almost empty, while the recycle is chock full. This is what zero waste is all about....reduce trash going to landfill, recycle or reuse almost everything. In order to do this, it may be necessary to precycle. Precycling is the process of changing buying strategies to avoid packaging that doesn't recycle. It's important to get rid of styrofoam to-go containers, those plastic coated coke cups (they seem to be wax coated paper, but they're not, and they don't recycle). And cardboard...take a little time to keep fiber products out of the trash.
Our next goal is to start a saturday morning zero waste / freecycle / organic farmers market / event on the back forty of the clubhouse parking lot. The goal is to further the zero waste awareness, while at the same time attracting non-golfers to the course. We want non-golfers to pick up a putter while they're visiting the course. The practice putting green is right next to the parking lot, so we expect that some of our non golfer visitors may be swayed towards the fun of golf. That's another important part of our zero waste park strategy...we don't want to waste any opportunities to attract more new customers to the golf course.
All in all, zero waste golf is a big hit. We have been pleasantly surprised as to the breadth of support we have recieved from the global golf industry, from local politicians, non profit groups and the general public. It's fantastic. If you google "zero waste golf" you'll be amazed at all the press we've attracted globally. One of the latest articles of note appeared in the USGA green section. Look for it.
If you're a golf superintendent, or a policy maker in your area, or even an interested individual, you should consider promoting zero waste golf at your golf courses. You won't be sorry.
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