Mary Queen of Heaven and St. Rita's Festivals

Mary Queen of Heaven and St. Rita's Festivals

Mary Queen of Heaven Festival and St. Rita's Festival are neighborhood events in West Allis, WI held in late June and mid-July, respectively, drawing estimated crowds of over 8,000. Music, games and a wide variety of food are available.

These festivals used No. 6 cups for most beverages. Approximately 100-150 lbs. of PET bottles and No. 6 plastic cups from each festival were collected in PETE's big green bins. Heavy, clear plastic liner bags were provided for PETE's big bins. Twenty-one bags of cups/bottles were collected, which were 90% free of cantaminants. Cans and bottles were removed from the bags, and the cups were picked up by a local recycling company.

These festivals use separate tickets for beer, food and games. The use of tickets provides more obstacles to offering refills since the refilled beverage would be at a reduced cost and two different beer tickets would need to be used. Festival organizers will be encoraged to try new methods for selling beer so that refills can be offered in souvenir cups at future festivals.

Storage locations are limited for most small neighborhood festivals. The area must be close enough to allow for quick transport of used materials, yet far enough away from festival-goers so as not to create a messy atmosphere. Filled bags of cups were store behind a building in a little-used corridor

Pete's big bins are lightweight and could be blown about when they are empty. It is recommended that a weight such as a brick be placed at the bottom of the bin (before inserting the plastic bag). This worked well in keeping the bins where they belonged.