Do You Have An Event or Festival We Can Help With?

Deep Tropics

Background

Deep Tropics is one of our most successful zero waste events, boasting a 96% diversion rate of event waste.

Deep tropics is a two-night event in downtown Nashville, TN. Our team completed a full-service contract, collecting, sorting, and cleaning up all material during and after the event.

Deep tropics is one of our most thorough waste diversion programs with the inclusion of hard-to-recycle materials being diverted. Overall we were able to divert 4,024 lbs of material in our first year.

Recycling

2,885 lbs recycled in 2023

Cans, Bottles, and Glass

Recycling at Deep Tropics was source separated, meaning glass, plastic, and cans needed to be separated. Our conveyor belt system facilitated this perfectly as we were able to pull out each stream of material from the public-facing mixed recycling bags.

Cardboard and Film Plastic

Cardboard and film plastic (plastic bags) were generated in bulk from vendors and bars. Our full-service hands-on approach to waste collection allows us to pick up cardboard and film/soft plastic separately from the rest of the the waste stream. This keeps the material clean and dry and means they can be recycled properly.

Terracycle Recycling

Deep tropics recycles more than a typical event! The Deep Tropics team facilitates our access to Terracyle bins. Terracyle is a company that specializes in hard-to-recycle materials. For the purpose of Deep tropics this meant that 72.4 lbs of cigarette butts, zip ties, and other miscellaneous plastics was recycled.

Compost

947.3 lbs composted in 2023

Food vendors at Deep tropics were required to serve meals on compostable serviceware. This meant that all plates, cups, boats, and silverware were made from non-coated paper or compostable plastics.

Public-facing compost bins allowed attendees to properly dispose of their compostable materials. Back at our zero waste headquarters staff and volunteers checked these compost bags for contamination. Clean compost meant that the compost facility was confident that the material could be composted.

Reuse

193 lbs estimated reduced in 2023

Deep Tropics achieves waste diversion by serving drinks in reusable aluminum cups. These cups were collected by the green team in the festival grounds or at our zero waste headquarters. From there the cups were washed and reused at next year’s event.

During the sorting process our team was able to find all improperly discarded reusable cups. This allowed for the reuse of over 200 cups that would have otherwise be lost to the waste stream.