By Adam Donnelly

City of Kamloops tries out sustainability initiatives at Hot Night and Ribfest

Aug 14, 2017 | 11:19 AM

KAMLOOPS — With Saturday’s combination of Ribfest and Hot Night in the City, this weekend was a celebration of consumption in the city of Kamloops. While revving engines and hucking bones makes for a fun weekend, it also creates a lot of waste – which is why the City of Kamloops made a special effort to increase sustainability awareness at Hot Night – while trying to divert as much Ribfest waste as possible from away from the local landfill.

This weekend, downtown Kamloops was packed with people who were taking in two of the city’s signature events: Ribfest down at Riverside Park, and the Hot Night in the City car show throughout the downtown core.

While folks from all around flock to the city to sample some tasty meats, and get a glimpse of some sweet rides, the City of Kamloops took the opportunity to promote a pair of sustainability initiatives at each event.

“These are some of the most popular events in Kamloops,” Glen Cheetham, Sustainability Services Supervisor with the City of Kamloops explained, adding “Not only are we here, we’re also trying to help [each] event become more sustainable itself.”

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At Hot Night that means setting up Electric Avenue, where electric car owners, as well as manufacturers and service providers, can gather to share more info about EV’s.

“What we really want to do is give people a sense of what is a possible alternative mode of transportation,” Cheetham said. “people do like their cars, and electric vehicles are going to be an important part of the solution towards lowering the carbon intensity of our transportation.”

Brock Nanson is a Tesla Model S owner from Kamloops, as well as the Vice President of the Telsa Owners of BC club. He says that since buying his first electric vehicle nearly three years ago, he wouldn’t go back to internal combustion

‘A Tesla, or an electric vehicle in general, has about a tenth, or 10% of the moving parts that you’d find in your typical gas or diesel powered vehicle,” Nanson explained. “This is where it’s going. Internal combustion engines can’t compete with this [technology].”

Down at Ribfest, the city was trying something new; they had a waste separation station, to ensure compostable waste is staying out of the landfill

“All of the food waste that is collected can be composted at a local farm,” Cheetham said.

Ribfest spokesperson Bryce Herman says it’s another step the event has taken to try and lessen the impact on the city.

“We’ve worked on biodegradable containers being used, that was a move last year,” Herman told CFJC Today.

While this is the first year organizers have tried to manage waste created at Ribfest, Herman says this first step is the biggest one.

“We don’t know exactly what that waste amount is, but by doing this and separating [the waste], it’s going to give us a much better idea of the direction we’re going and what we can do to make this a better process.”