Alpine Valley Music Theatre is one of Wisconsin\u2019s largest music venues. With seating for over 37,000 guests and a 2022 lineup that included acts like Slipknot, Dave Matthews Band, and Phish, the famed venue welcomed hundreds of thousands of music fans over the summer.<\/p>\n
And those thousands of fans generated thousands of pounds of garbage.<\/p>\n
Enter Quintin Bendixen.<\/p>\n
Bendixen is the sustainability coordinator at Alpine Valley. He\u2019s also a two-time 51ÁÔÆæ alum, earning his Bachelor\u2019s degree and Master\u2019s degree in Geosciences, who now teaches sustainability and geosciences classes at both 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Milwaukee and Waukesha campuses. That gives him access to an army of students who signed on as sustainability interns this summer to help Bendixen and Alpine Valley work toward the venue\u2019s goal of zero waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did pretty good,\u201d Bendixen said of his interns. \u201cWe got to 70% waste reduction over the year, which is pretty great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sustainability coordinator position is a relatively new one. Alpine Valley Music Theatre is run by the company Live Nation, which operates about 100 music venues across the country. Live Nation has adopted numerous sustainability goals for its venues. Bendixen said those models were helpful when he started the job in spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at our water footprint and our energy footprint,\u201d Bendixen said, pointing out Alpine Valley\u2019s rainwater capture system (the bathrooms are all flushed with rain water) and its energy saving initiatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest factor is probably trying to achieve zero waste,\u201d he added, \u201cwhich is tricky to do. If anyone\u2019s been to a big concert like Summerfest, you know you practically kick up plastic cups as you walk around. We\u2019re trying to achieve goals that lead us as close as possible to zero waste.\u201d<\/p>\n
To achieve that, Alpine Valley Music Theatre needs to recycle as much of its waste as possible. And to do that, Bendixen needed to make sure the recycling was sorted. If a recycling is \u201ccontaminated\u201d with too many non-recyclable materials, Bendixen explained, recycling centers will throw everything out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we as a society overestimate how recycling works,\u201d he said. \u201cAs much as we want it to be, and as much as I hope it would be, what goes into our recycling containers isn\u2019t always necessarily going to be recycled.\u201d<\/p>\n
To that end, Bendixen recruited a number of interns drawn from the Milwaukee campus\u2019 Conservation and Environmental Science program and from his geosciences classes at the Waukesha campus. He trained his students on how to sort through the mountains of trash leftover at the end of each concert to make sure that they recovered as much recyclable material as possible.<\/p>\n
A culture of sustainability
\nLive Nation\u2019s push for sustainability is both good for the planet and good for its business. Going green is a trendy practice these days, and Bendixen noted that studies show that music fans tend to be more environmentallyconscious than others in the population.<\/p>\n
In addition, more artists are including \u201cgreen riders,\u201d or environmentallyminded stipulations that a venue must meet for an artist to perform there. Some riders include directives for locally-sourced food or for recycling and sorting procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Being green) is an expectation in the industry now,\u201d Bendixen said. \u201cIf we do it right, it lowers our costs. So it\u2019s beneficial to us and it\u2019s beneficial to the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n
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