The Trailing of the Sheep Festival, which runs through Sunday, Oct. 9, is teaming up with the Environmental Resource Center (ERC) and local students in Wood River High School’s WATER Club to provide recycling and composting at Festival venues throughout the Wood River Valley.

The ERC has been working at Ketchum Alive, Hailey Alive, July 4th, Trailing of the Sheep Festival and other public events throughout the summer. cutting waste by an estimated 2,000 pounds. Using reusable materials at events helps but there are other recyclables that are also created at these events. At those times, the local cities, Clear Creek Disposal, Winn's Composting, Climate Action Coalition, the Wood River High School WATER Club, and the ERC work together to help event organizers and attendees make the transition to complete recycling.

This entails recycling aluminum cans, plastic film, plastics No. 1 through 5, and composting the food waste and dishware used at the events.

Trailing of the Sheep Festival now uses all compostable plates, napkins, utensils, and cups at the Sheep Folklife Fair and Happy Trails Closing Party. It also serves aluminum cans of water for those who did not bring their own.

“We are so grateful to the wonderful students from WATER Club for manning the trash, recycling, and composting bins at Festival events,” said Laura Musbach Drake, executive director at the Trailing of the Sheep Festival. “They work alongside the Climate Action Coalition throughout the day to make sure people understand the system and that there is no cross contamination. They do a great job keeping our waste stream down .”

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