The 6th Annual North Lake Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival was held in Squaw Valley on April 26th. The theme for this year’s event was “Giant Steps Towards Smaller Footprints,” with a focus on issues such as Zero Waste, green building, climate change, forest and habitat preservation, recycling, and more.

North Lake Tahoe Truckee Earth Day has become the largest environmental event in the region, combining world class musical entertainment, thought provoking speakers and over 50 booths featuring non profit organizations, local, state and federal agency representatives and green businesses.

Zero Waste is a new way of looking at the human waste stream: instead of seeing used materials as garbage in need of disposal, discards are seen as valuable resources. A pile of “trash” represents jobs, financial opportunity, and raw material for new products. In an effort to minimize waste, typical trash receptacles will not be available during the festival. Booth participants are requested to minimize handouts and implement other forms of waste reduction. All food vendors will be using biodegradable take-out containers made of either paper or PLA, a high tech starch-based plastic. Food and biodegradable waste will be collected and composted by Full Circle Compost in Minden, Nevada. The compost will return to Sierra Nevada College’s demonstration garden in Incline Village.
www.tahoetruckeeearthday.org