A refreshing partnership

For quite awhile, the staff at Silverwood Theme Park never had a great answer when guests asked how or where they could recycle their plastic bottles. The honest answer – “We don’t have anything yet but we’re working on it” – didn’t seem quite good enough. “A lot of people from other communities with large recycling programs were asking this question,” said Denny Higdon, director of maintenance and facilities. This season, the park staff will have a better answer: they’ll direct guests to the nearest of 150 new blue recycling receptacles. Even better, two special interactive recycling kiosks, one in the arcade area and one right inside Boulder Beach Water Park, will actually reward guests for turning in plastic bottles in the form of coupons to Silverwood, discounts at attractions around the country and points for PepsiCo merchandise. These new “Dream Machines” are provided by PepsiCo and part of the beverage company’s new nationwide push to get more people recycling while reducing the amount of plastics entering landfills. In the last few years, it has placed 2,500 Dream Machines at businesses and public spaces in 22 states. Silverwood is the first theme park in the country to offer the Dream Machines, and the second Northwest location – the only other one is at Renton Technical College, south of Seattle. Tim Carey, PepsiCo’s director for sustainability and technology, said the company’s goal is to bring the national beverage container recycling rate up to 50 percent by 2018. Currently, it’s about 30 percent for plastic, and only about 12 percent of public spaces nationwide have recycling options. “It takes only a small change in behavior to make a big difference for our planet,” Carey said. “If every household in the U.S. recycled just three more plastic bottles a month, we could divert more than 23 million pounds of plastic from our landfills.” Nancy DiGiammarco, Silverwood’s director of marketing, sales and public relations, said the partnership came together at a meeting with local PepsiCo employees regarding possible park promotions. She mentioned that Silverwood had been looking for recycling options for several years but hadn’t found anything that was efficient and available in our area. In the past, Higdon said setting up a park-wide large-scale recycling program would have required park staff to collect, sort and rinse all recyclable products and then take them away for recycling themselves, since no recycling company was available for pick-up. Silverwood had already been collecting its cardboard and paper and hauling it away for recycling, but adding larger plastic items into the process would be an extremely complicated venture. At this meeting with PepsiCo, DiGiammarco received excellent news: it just so happened the company had been looking for new ways to get more people recycling and also searching for ideal locations for its Dream Machines, especially in the Northwest. Part of this effort includes coordinating with local Waste Management offices, which handles the transportation and disposal of recyclables. After a series of meetings between Silverwood, and local and national officials from PepsiCo and Waste Management, the plan came together and the Dream Machines and recycling bins arrived in the park right before Memorial Day. “This whole thing really came together because of our partnership with PepsiCo,” Higdon said. “This is going to be a really nice program for us and for the public.” Guests can set up accounts at either of the computerized Dream Machine/Greenopolis kiosks and receive a smart card for their wallets or keychains that will keep track of their points. Every time they recycle plastic bottles in the park (soda, juice, beer, water, or energy drinks) or even at other Dream Machines in the U.S., they acquire points. When the bins are full, Waste Management will come to the park for pick-up and transportation to a local recycling center. “We’re very excited about this,” said Steve Roberge, district manager for Waste Management of Idaho. “This is a unique program around here, and there’s even potential for schools or other organizations to get involved.” Traditionally, he said people would just throw all their trash together. Now there are so many more options for businesses and households to recycle, and the Dream Machines at Silverwood will make recycling even easier and attractive. “Just throwing everything away isn’t what we as a company want to do anymore, and our customers don’t want it either,” Roberge said. “Customers have been clamoring for something like this – everyone wins.” Carey, from PepsiCo, said the response to Dream Machine locations has been extremely positive, and businesses or facilities where they are located have seen a large increase in overall recycling. Plus, he said PepsiCo uses support from its recycling programs to fund a national program called Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, which offers free training in small business management to veterans. “PepsiCo has made a promise to deliver sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for consumers, for the planet and for our employees,” he said. “This promise is the cornerstone of PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose mission – it is our belief that our financial success (Performance) can and must go hand-in-hand with our social and environmental responsibilities (Purpose).” Silverwood staff is excited at having such a resource, especially this year when the park projects that guests will buy as many as 200,000 beverages. An easy way to remove these bottles benefits everyone. “This is really the next step in our plan,” DiGiammarco said. “This is also a good educational opportunity for the public – parents can talk to their children about why it’s important to recycle, and the family can get rewards for it.” This year’s partnership with PepsiCo and Waste Management is noteworthy but only one of several ways Silverwood Theme Park conserves resources. • The historic steam locomotive that chugs around the park burns a mixture of used motor oil and used cooking oil. Last year, the park collected 3,800 gallons of cooking oil from the kitchens. “You might even think you smell French fries as the train goes by,” said Nancy DiGiammarco, director of marketing, sales and public relations. • All cardboard is separated from regular waste, baled and taken away for recycling. In a typical season, 50 bales make up one load, and there are usually 2 ½ loads a season. Office paper is also recycled. • In 2008, the park built its own wastewater treatment plant. Previously it was on a septic system, but as visitors to the park steadily increased, park officials and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality recommended creating a plant to accommodate future demand. • Treated water currently is used to irrigate alfalfa fields, and the alfalfa feeds the park’s resident bison herd. After a plant upgrade this year, the water will also be used to irrigate lawns and green spaces. • Water from Boulder Beach Water Park is recirculated often, and at the end of the season it is used for irrigation. • Silverwood is concerned about its ecological impact. Its annual Science Days focuses on the value of the Spokane-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. • This year, the park is looking at opportunities to find new uses for old employee uniforms.