The city is placing extra litter bins throughout downtown Milwaukee, and crews stand ready to tend to any additional needs.
But talking trash with people responsible for putting the Republican National Convention together proved challenging. Multiple calls and emails to party organizers and media contacts, being referred to one person and then another, got me nowhere.
But reaching out to Marty Brooks was a different story. Brooks is president and CEO of the Wisconsin Center District.
“I think the biggest difference for this event — and we host big events year round, we also host very small intimate events — so all different shapes and sizes of events,” Brook says.
The District’s three venues, The Baird Center, Miller High Life Theatre, and the UWM Panther Arena, will be hosting RNC activities. “The physical real estate that’s tied up for this event is probably the largest we’ve experienced,” Brooks says.
As for waste management, Brooks says its baked into his operations. “We have the same waste receptacles throughout. There’s more than enough capacity,” Brooks says.
RNC attendees will be encouraged to plunk glass, plastic and other recyclables into separate bins.
“But as I would hope you could appreciate, while many people pay attention to that, not everyone does. So we do a single stream in that we have one provider pick it up, and they go through it and then sort it thoroughly to make sure that those items that can be recycled are separated and recycled accordingly and those that can’t be are landfilled,” he says.
As for food waste, Brooks says some events serve loads of food, but in the case of the RNC, “It’s really not an extraordinary amount because the event is so spread out — food and beverage opportunities are not just in our place but also Fiserv Forum, the hotels. So over the course of the week this will not be the largest event as far as a food and beverage consumption standpoint,” Brooks says.
Nevertheless, the Wisconsin Convention District has had a system in place for large and small events. Any food waste is bagged up and picked up by Compost Crusaders.
I meet Robby Friedlen with Compost Crusader at its headquarters in St. Francis. Compost Crusader’s fleet picks up food waste that is turned into rich compost. “Yeah, total number of customers, it’s over 2,500 residential and commercial customers, more residential customers in quantity but our commercial customers provide us with a lot of volume of material that we get,” Friedlen says.
Friedlen says RNC or no RNC customers like Wisconsin Convention District are helping to divert food waste from landing in landfills.
“There a number of reasons to avoid landfills … as materials sit in a landfill it emits a lot of greenhouse gases — methane being one of the most potent. So by diverting food waste you are avoiding the emissions and turning it into a resource that can be used in gardens,” Friedlen says.
According to the US EPA, food waste represents about 24% of the solid waste municipalities dispose of in landfills.
As the Wisconsin Convention Center team enters their first-ever Republican National Convention, Marty Brooks is thinking ahead to Milwaukee’s next major event. He says operating sustainably will be key.
“Absolutely, people looking at holding events here want their events to add to a city in a positive way, not adding more to landfills unnecessarily. We want to make sure we have the right impact on our world, not just taking, but giving to the city,” Brooks says.
