This book includes a plain text version that is designed for high accessibility. To use this version please follow this link.
Other Duties as Assigned Other Duties as


Other Duties as Assigned One Hot Mess Shawna McKinley Director of Sustainability, MeetGreen


We had an event that we were doing with the Unitari- anUniversalistAssociation in Charlotte, actually this past June, and during our site inspections that we do for that event, my role is always to ask all of the questions about their green practices. One thing that we always set out in advance is, we ask


the CVB and the venue to take us on a trip to the recy- cling facility that they use — and the composting facility, if they have one — so that we can go with them to inspect it. The composting program for them was new, but they’d found a partner that looked really promising that was lo- cated probably about a half-hour drive out of the city, in a very rural area of Charlotte. So we all piled into a ve- hicle and we went on a bit of a field trip, first to the recy- cling plant and then to the composting plant. It was definitely one of those trips where it was “make


a right, make a left, around the bend, past the red mail- box, past the horse paddock.” Naturally, we couldn’t find the composting facility. So after unsuccessfully asking around for directions, and finally being able to track down the owner of the compost facility, we got back on the road


136 pcma convene November 2011


and followed his directions and finally arrived at his plant, which was incredibly remote. And you come up to these places, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a compost- ing facility before — but they don’t smell very nice. When we finally arrived, this particular facility was


an open composting facility, with mountains of compost at various stages of decomposition that are baking there in the sun. And the interesting thing about compost is that, as it sets, even if it’s a cold day in December, as it was this day, everything steams. And it’s really very warm, and the smell just is everywhere. So that was our day. We went out and found out es-


sentially where everything from the disposable service- ware for this event, to the food clippings and vegetable trimmings, and the bones and leftover meat, and the dairy from their kitchens would all be coming to. It was a day where we all learned something new and had a bit of an adventure. And we actually had one of the most suc- cessful waste-management programs that we’ve ever had for this event.


— As told to Hunter R. Slaton www.pcma.org


ILLUSTRATION BY WACSO


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140