BURBANK, Calif. – Crews are working to ensure that waste goes into its proper place by carefully labeling and sorting through trash at the Starlight Bowl.

“Good-bye. Go be soil," said Amy Hammes to some cupcakes as she dropped them into a compost container.

When it comes to what gets thrown away, she is pretty picky, but not squeamish.  

“It doesn’t bother me at all," Hammes said, elbow deep in a garbage bag. "I’m looking for resources and I think if you’re an environmentalist, you just see beyond what might be considered gross.”

Hammes is the recycling specialist for City of Burbank and she does not like to see anything recoverable go to waste.

“That’s what makes me sad actually," Hammes said. "I get a little sad.”

Which is why she’s so invested in the Zero Waste Program at the Starlight Bowl – an outdoor concert venue that attracts thousands of people – and their picnics.  State law requires large venues to have a waste reduction plan, but Hammes says just putting out recycling bins isn’t enough.

“That’s why we go to the ends of the earth here because we’re trying to build habits," Hammes said.

The effort starts with carefully labeled sorting station, manned by workers from Recycled Movie Sets, a company that offers set rentals as well as waste diversion services.  If stuff goes in the wrong bin, workers armed with grabbers are there to correct the mistake. They are also there to educate people so they can make better choices in the future.  

“We’re not expecting perfection," Hammes said. "We’re expecting, ‘Hey you know what? Can you be more conscious of your consumption?’”

This sort as you go strategy pays off later, when Hammes and the crew work into the night, meticulously recovering anything they can. Food scraps get composted right on site, including the uncoated food containers used by onsite vendor Café Corner Bistro.

“We’re going to make soil out of it," Hammes said, dumping leftover chicken into the bin. "So that’s what nature does. Nature makes soil out of our food waste and we should be doing that too.”

They also pull out anything that can be recycled, although that market has tightened significantly and some things that used to be acceptable aren’t anymore.

“So even if this was clean, a lot of this stuff is trash now," Hammes said, holding up the molded plastic cupcake carrier covered in icing.

Last but not least, they weigh everything to see how much they saved from the trash heap.  

“We probably are about 77 percent diversion from landfill, which is pretty phenomenal," Hammes said.

Of course, some stuff does end up going to the dump – but in the end, it is less than a quarter of what was thrown away. Hammes can live with that.

“We’re not delusional to say there’s no waste," said Hammes. "The whole point of Zero Waste is to say how much more can we move the bar.”  

With effort and education, she hopes to push it even further.

To find out more about what can be recycled, click here.