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Earth Day 2008: Giant steps toward smaller footprints |
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Written by Morgan Kriz
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Tuesday, 22 April 2008 |
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 The 6th Annual North Lake Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival is coming to Squaw Valley on Saturday, April 26 and takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The theme for this year’s event is “Giant Steps Towards Smaller Footprints,” with a focus on issues such as zero waste, green building, climate change, forest and habitat preservation, recycling and more. The event is free with a multitude of activities and is suitable for all ages.
North Lake Tahoe Truckee Earth Day has become the largest environmental event in the region, combining world class musical entertainment, thought provoking speakers and more than 50 booths featuring non-profit organizations, local, state and  federal agency representatives and green businesses.
T.A.R.T is providing free transportation to the Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival and admission to Saturday’s festival is free as well. In addition, Squaw Valley is encouraging guests to carpool to the resort to help cut down on harmful emissions.
Each year, the North Lake Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival relies on continued support from local businesses, organizations and individual donors.
North Tahoe Truckee Earth Day presenting sponsors include: Tahoe Earth Day Foundation, The  Village at Squaw Valley USA, Town of Truckee Solid Waste & Recycling Division, Truckee Climate Action Network, Coldstream Creative, Paesano Productions, Giese Accounting and Tax, Camp Dresser & McKee, Black Rock Creative, North Lake Tahoe Boys and Girls Club, SWEP, Incline Village General Improvement District — Waste Not, TAO Education, the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce and KVMR.
Promoting Zero Waste
Earth Day 2008 strives to be a Zero Waste event. Zero Waste is a new way of looking at the human waste stream: instead of seeing used materials as garbage in need of disposal, discards are seen as  valuable resources. A pile of "trash" represents jobs, financial opportunity, and raw material for new products.
In an effort to minimize waste, typical trash receptacles will not be available during the festival. Booth participants are requested to minimize handouts and implement other forms of waste reduction.
All food vendors will be using biodegradable take-out containers made of either paper or PLA, a high tech starch-based plastic. Food and biodegradable waste will be collected and composted by Full Circle Compost in Minden, Nev. The compost will return to  Sierra Nevada College’s demonstration garden in Incline Village.
Facts and figures on American waste will be placed throughout the Village. A contest will be held to guess how much waste is generated the day of the event.
For the first time ever, the North Lake Tahoe Truckee Earth Day will also strive to be a “Carbon Neutral” event. Truckee Climate Action Network will calculate all the emissions involved in producing the event, from the organizers first planning meeting to attendees combined travel to and from the event, to electrical use during the event. Whatever can’t be reduced will be offset through the purchase of green tags.
There will also be a mass bike ride planned at 9:30 a.m. from Tahoe City (meet at
64 Acres) and Truckee (meet at The Mousehole) to the event at Squaw Valley.
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