Stampede turns off lights to go green

The Calgary Stampede is introducing utensils and plates made from corn starch and turning off the midway lights during the day in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of the 10-day event.

Signs will direct the Stampede's 100,000 daily visitors to dispose of the cornstarch dishes and utensils in compost bins. The biodegradable items will be tried out by a handful of concession stands.

"Instead of sending it to city landfill, we're going attempt to try to take them out of the waste stream and compost them with our regular composting programs as bedding waste manure," operations manager Gerry McHugh said Wednesday.

To save electricity, lights for vendors and rides on the midway will be shut off during sunny days, and turned on at dusk when they're needed, he said.

The Stampede is also stepping up its efforts to recycle the leftover grease from deep fryers to turn into biodiesel.

The barns already boast more than 10 skylights that reduce the need for artificial lighting, and the operations/trades building is heated with roof solar panels.

McHugh even showed off a machine in a back shop that crushes fluorescent tubes and separates the mercury and phosphor vapours, so they don't end up in the landfill.

"We are going to continually improve and look at our programs," said Cherie Schmidt, the Stampede's environmental co-ordinator. "Start with the major ones, and then start going through the rest of them and see what else we can do to lower our footprint."

A new bin at the exit to the Stampede for donating plush toys to charity is among the new green initiatives.

"A lot of people are trying to get the big prize so they may have no use for the smaller ones," said McHugh.