The Compost Education and Grassroots Composting "footprint" - back right side of the Grandstand Stage. Not a bad place to catch some music while collecting scraps or educating...

Organized, post-consumer food scrap collection. Festivalgoers now have the option to compost and are catching on to the new option.

Master Composters Tom Gordon (Class of '98) & Nadine Louge (Class of '00) talk composting strategy at the education booth. Tom coordinated our composting efforts at the festival from 1998 - 2002.

Five-gallon buckets of food scraps were weighed and stacked before being loaded into the "Rot Van," Tompkins County Cooperative Extension's own garbage scow.

The bulk of our food scraps (8,160 lbs. in 2004) come from nearly 20 on-site food vendors. Despite their hectic schedules, these vendors, from all over the country, agree to separate their pre-consumer food scraps from the trash. We provide the compost buckets and stop by every hour or so to swap their full bucket with an empty one. To help our volunteers identify a participating vendor, we hang an official "vendor composter" plaque in from of each booth.

Master Composter Andy Moore (Class of '03) was the lead coordinator behind this year's efforts. He did a tremendous job and put in over 50 hours of volunteer hours. Here he's doing some pre-composting composting... if you know what I mean.

Master Composter Joy Mathews (Class of '02) was another lead coordinator. She helped in all things from planning to set-up, from volunteer supervising to event clean up. Here's Joy doing what Joy likes to do most - chat with interested people about composting.

Master Composter Kitty Gifford (Class of '03) and partner Mark were two of the nineteen volunteers that put in 12 hours each over the weekend. That's roughly 200 total volunteer hours to compost 8,000 lbs. of food scraps. You do the math!

Master Composter Lynn Vaccaro (Class of '03) discusses vermicomposting with a fairgoer at the compost education booth.