The 2011 Longview Art and World Music Festival Will be KC's First "Zero to Landfill" Festival Event

Lee's Summit, MO, September 12, 2011 --(PR.com)-- As patrons visit the 2011 Longview Art & World Music Festival they will notice right off something is missing… trash cans. Why you might ask? Because 100% of the food waste, trash and disposed products generated at the event will be recycled. Aluminum cans and other metal will be sold for scrap, glass will be recycled into fiber glass insulation by Ripple Glass, Type 1 and 2 plastics will be recycled into new plastic products while all other types of plastics, wood and paper will be recycled into fuels to help produce Portland Cement by the Lafarge Corporation, organic and waste food will be segregated and recycled into compost by Missouri Organic Recycling. The New Longview Foundation, Summit Art, LaFarge Corporation, Town & Country Disposal, Ripple Glass, Missouri Organic Recycling and volunteers from Cedar Creek and Longview Farm Elementary Schools are participating in this trend-setting project. Kurt Gerdes of LaFarge says, “They are pleased to announce that LaFarge KC has reduced coal volumes by 40% through environment efforts such as this.”

When festival patrons attend they can take part in diverting more waste from landfills. Last year alone clean up crews hauled away more than thirty-six 55 gallon containers of waste from the festival. A recycling initiative last year allowed the festival in partnership with Ripple Glass to recycle over 25,000 bottles. With an expected increase in attendance this year festival organizers have expanded on this green initiative. With the help of our many partners we will prevent an estimated 4,000 gallons of wet and dry trash from being dumped in local landfills. David Gale of Gale Communities states that, “Our 6,000 residents in New Longview and Winterset expect nothing less than this kind of green effort.”

The Longview Art & World Music Festival is a free, outdoor, 3-day festival of fine arts that will feature over 90 local, regional and national artists. Visitors will enjoy a unique blend of art and music in historic Longview. New for 2011 will be our hands on children’s art activity tent. In addition, the festival will include Lee’s Summit R7 School Districts, grades 7-12 art pavilion plus dozens of chalk art displays along Fascination Dr., a “Summit Art” Pavilion, and historic hayride tours Saturday and Sunday afternoon in historic Longview. There will be plenty of free parking, food/beverage court and something for the entire family to enjoy. The event is organized by Summit Art, presented by Saint Luke’s East -Lee’s Summit with help from the New Longview Foundation and Gale Communities. 40,000 are expected to attend.

Scattered amongst the artist booths throughout the festival grounds will be a variety of recycling bins. After enjoying some Gourmet Wings or a Spiedini on the street customers will be directed to our food recycling station where students from Longview Elementary Student Council, with the assistance of adults, will help scrape leftover food into compost bins and sort the remainder of the trash to be recycled. Each evening volunteers through New Longview Foundation and Gale Communities will inspect and sort recycling bins to insure proper placement of the various materials.

“We hope artists and patrons are as excited as we are to participate in the first Zero to Landfill event in the Kansas City area. When the opportunity was presented that could have such an immediate environmental impact from our three day festival we knew we had to make it happen.” - Keith Davenport, 2011 Art Festival Director.

For more information, Keith Davenport and Todd Shelley email:
info@longviewartmusicfest.com or visit www.longviewartmusicfest.com

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