Dive in to the fun and hard work of event recycling at the 26th Annual Festa Italiana in Pioneer Square 11 a.m to 11 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Saturday August 24, 25, 26. Join Quincenturion Master Recycler Chatten Hayes (Class 44) and help organize and implement all the event recycling systems. 

Chatten designed the program for her Master Recycler class project in 2010, working with a large number of typical event recovery materials (cardboard, glass, vendor compost) as well as unique materials from Festa—hundreds of corks from the wine bottles, for example, very desirable at SCRAP and to teachers who love them for reuse. Chatten's pride, however, is the recovery of restaurant-prepared edible food at the end of each night, which is whisked to Transition Projects instead of wasted, or composted. She makes process improvements on the go whenever possible as the needs of the public and the event dictate. 

Come have fun, GET DIRTY (trash folks always do) and eat some great gelato. Very special help needed two times during the event: NOON FRIDAY until about 2:30 p.m. for the official Festa welcome and Grape Stomp—hundreds of pounds of grapes get composted in a big rush. Also 5:30 p.m. SATURDAY Dinner hour until 11 p.m. for the booming final night in a packed piazza.

Contact Chatten, 503-880-4314 voice or text; chatten@centurylink.net