Description
The City of Fayetteville annually hosts a variety of events that actively recycle; however the Dogwood Festival has proven to be exceptional. The festival is held every year in the downtown area and has been recycling items since 2006. At the most recent event it was able to successfully recycle plastic bottles, beer and soda cans and corrugated cardboard. On average approximately 300,000 people are in attendance through the duration of the event.

Implementation
The city distributes recycling bins throughout the event and an attempt is made to place a recycling bin by most garbage receptacles. A volunteer organization, the Sustainable Sandhills, helps monitor the recycling bins and makes sure there is minimal contamination. Additionally, the city provides an informational booth at the event to promote recycling and educate attendees about suitable items to recycle, as well as other sustainable concepts. In the past, the bins utilized for the event have been Clear Stream containers; however, the 2009 festival will transition to roll-carts which will be reusable and more efficient at holding the recyclable products.

Because city employees were largely responsible for the recycling efforts during the event, it was necessary to educate and inform them about their responsibilities. At times the participants at the event confused the recycling bins for trash cans and thus contaminated them. There was a concerted effort by the city with the assistance of Sustainable Sandhills to educate and inform all those in attendance about the importance of recycling.

Results
Overall the efforts of the city of Fayetteville have been successful at diverting a considerable amount of waste. Because the program is relatively new there is still some difficultly overcoming a learning curve with vendors. For instance, many still use Styrofoam as their primary containers during the event which is not a recyclable material. Overall, the city has made great strides to incorporate recycling into a popular event.