State fair going green with disposal of waste

Much of the trash will be recycled or turned into biodiesel fuel.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Butter cows and other wondrous sculptures carved from the dairy products will get more use after they’re done being displayed at the Ohio State Fair.

All 2,500 pounds of butter will become biodiesel fuel through a project at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. It’s part of a new, green-minded initiative to use the fair’s recyclable or biodegradable elsewhere. The 155th annual fair opened Wednesday at the fairgrounds in Columbus.

In another effort, gnawed-on corn cobs, leftover sandwich buns and other uneaten food at the fair’s Taste of Ohio building are being hauled to a compost pile in South Charleston, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus. The waste was sent to a landfill in past years.

Fairgoers are being asked to separate their trash after meals and place them in marked bins. Biodegradables go into a green bin, recyclables get placed in a blue bin and all other trash goes in a brown bin. Written information about the initiative is being placed on each table.

“The state fair is a wonderful opportunity to educate people,” said Chet Chaney of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. “We hope people will start seeing this as a traditional way of doing business.”

As part of a state grant, restaurants at the fair are using biodegradable plates, cutlery and cups. They’re made out of corn starch or sugar cane, but look like high-quality paper plates.

The effort is part of a new recycling campaign by the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio. Funding for the project at the fair comes from a Department of Natural Resources grant.

“The third-largest type of waste we get at the land fill is food waste,” said Kristi Michels, environment education manager for SWACO. “And we want to reduce the waste going into the landfill.”

The three-bin system also will be used at the Rhodes Center, where about 400 state fair band and choir members eat every day, and at a restaurant on the fairgrounds. A similar system was used in those buildings last year, when 4,000 pounds of biodegradable waste was collected.

Those facilities will also recycle their frying oil for the Mount Vernon Nazarene biodiesel project.