Green and Litter-free Events

Our Green and Litter-Free Events program provides recycling bins, bags and other resources to help you minimize waste at neighborhood events, community festivals, cultural gatherings, races and other outdoor events. Our program helps you educate the public, save money by conserving resources, reduce landfill use and decrease event clean-up. We also provide informative tools to educate and empower coordinators, sponsors, vendors, volunteers and attendees about their role in keeping your event clean and sustainable.

Last year, our program helped recycle close to five tons of material from 42 events, reaching more than 235,000 people throughout the Kansas City area.

One of our highlights from last year’s success was the Kansas City Irish Fest: with 94,000 people in attendance, collected 248 bags of plastic bottles and cups, aluminum cans and corrugated cardboard. That equals 2232 pounds of waste that will be recycled instead of dumped into our landfills.

NEW this year is our partnership with Johnson County Environmental Department! Through the partnership we obtained 80 additional recycling bins which are located at Johnson County's Recycling Center at 119th and Hardy.

To host your own Green Event, simply follow our 4 easy steps below. For more information, please contact our KKCB Green Events intern Margaret Graham by calling 816-561-1061 ext. 132 or margaret.graham@bridgingthegap.org.

When planning your events, consider developing your waste-management strategy according to our Green Event Planning Guide. We provide many ideas about how to make your event more environmentally conscious, such as:

• How to strategically manage recycling at your event
• How to coordinate with event sponsors, vendors, and facilities
• How to make your promotional materials more environmentally friendly
• How to recruit, manage and recognize Volunteers
• How to go beyond recycling to make your event sustainable

KKCB can provide you with the following supplies to help make your event Green:

• Five rent-free recycling bins ($5 each to rent after the first five)
• Five rent-free recycling bags ($.50 each to purchase after the first five)
• Green Event Marketing Tools: Small and Large Recycling Banners
•  Volunteer Work Gloves

Follow these four steps to a Greener Event:

1. Keep Kansas City Beautiful can provide you with a consultation and an Education Kit that includes the Green Event Planning Guide, a list of local waste haulers and Event Coordinator Procedures.
2. Fill out a Materials Request Form, outlining for us what recycling and education materials you would like to borrow for your event. Send us the form and we’ll reserve materials for you.
3. After your request has been approved and paid for, pick up the materials at one of our three recycling centers and make the most of the recycling opportunities at your event.
4. Return the recycling bins and banners to our centers, and fill out an Evaluation Form so that we can track the success of your event!

Materials may be picked up or dropped off at our recycling centers during regular operating hours. Locations include:

• North / Deramus – 4707 Deramus; north of Front St., east of Chouteau and on Deramus.
  Hours Wed-Sat, 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
• South / 3 Trails – the vacant Wal-Mart parking lot at 91st St. and Hillcrest Road
  Hours Wed-Sat, 9:30 AM  - 5:00 PM
• Johnson County – 11921 Hardy St.; off of 119th St., between Antioch and Blue Valley Parkway
  Hours M-F, 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM, Sat. 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Contact KKCB today to begin the process of making your event GREEN!

Margaret Graham, Green Events Intern
816-561-1061, ext 132
margaret.graham@bridgingthegap.org

Emily Miller, KKCB Program Manager
816-561-1061, ext. 102
emily.miller@bridgingthegap.org