{"id":176521,"date":"2023-08-31T15:50:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T19:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=176521"},"modified":"2023-09-01T12:44:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T16:44:58","slug":"brome-fair-goes-green-with-new-eco-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/brome-fair-goes-green-with-new-eco-initiatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Brome Fair goes green with new eco-initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The Brome County Agricultural Society (BCAS) is expanding its eco-responsible<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>approach for the 2023 edition of Brome Fair to reduce the amount of waste that is produced and sent to the regional landfill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The expansion of BCAS\u2019s is a part of a longer-term vision to assess its carbon footprint and to come up with a plan to \u201cmitigate that footprint over time,\u201d according to Peter McAuslan, chairperson of the BCAS\u2019s Suitability Committee (\"Green Team\").<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAgriculture lives with a healthy environment. So it seems logical that when you have an agricultural event, such as the fair, that we should try to be as green as we possibly can. It seems consistent with the mission of the agricultural community, that\u2019s the basis of it,\u201d explained McAuslan. \u201cOf course, we also see what\u2019s going on around us. The circumstances we are beginning to see daily that affect people around the world and our own community.\"<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In partnership with Festivals et \u00c9v\u00e9nements Verts de l\u2019Estrie, which has provided guidance and support to the BCAS in developing a more environmentally-friendly approach over the last couple of years, the BCAS is stepping up its commitment to the environment by introducing a number of new green initiatives at this year\u2019s Brome Fair.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">These initiatives include having water stations available on site to encourage people to bring their water bottles rather than buying plastics and promoting carpooling by no longer including parking for any of the admission tickets. Instead, parking will be available at a rate of $10 per day per vehicle.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe actual suppliers on site, the restaurants and so on, have also been obligated this year to buy compostable, recyclable, materials. So everything in the restaurant and so on can go into composting. There are no plastics at all that are allowed to be used by people offering those services. It\u2019s a multiple sort of plan,\u201d added McAuslan.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">To ensure that these initiatives are successful, the BCAS has beefed up its waste management system.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThere is a gang of people (the Green Team) off in the back of the site and they actually sort things. We sort things into recyclable materials, organics that can go into composting programs, and things like bottles., etc,.That\u2019s been going on and we are beefing that up, we are using some volunteers,\u201d mentioned McAuslan. (\u2026) \u201cWe\u2019ve now increased the number of triple bins on the site to 60. There\u2019s multiple places for people to properly place the materials that they generate.\u201d <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">For all of the agricultural plastics, they will be collected and recovered through the Agri-R\u00e9cup program.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThere is program set in place in the municipal regional area to reutilize plastics. We have all see the humungous marshmallow like bales here and there along farms during haying season, that is the material that is being collected and re-used,\u201d McAuslan said. \u201c(\u2026) The idea is to work with them and to give that program a little bit of recognition within the farming community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Marking some of the first major steps in reducing its carbon footprint, McAuslan emphasized that the BCAS is \u201cdetermined\u201d to play its part in helping the environment.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cWe really would like, in-so-far as possible, be carbon neutral. That\u2019s a challenge for an organization such as ours, but that\u2019s the attitude of the leadership of the board is to take us in that direction,\u201d he noted.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The BCAS\u2019s Sustainability Committee is still looking for volunteers. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, call 450-242-3976.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> Brome Fair runs from Sept. 1-4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b><i>Listen to the full interview below:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Brome County Agricultural Society (BCAS) is expanding its eco-responsible\u00a0approach for the 2023 edition of Brome Fair to reduce the amount of waste that is produced and sent to the regional landfill. The expansion of BCAS\u2019s is a part of a longer-term vision to assess its carbon footprint and to come up with a plan&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":99189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,222],"tags":[29848,5564,13586,25985,11767,7715,12704],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176878,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176521\/revisions\/176878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176521"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=176521"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=176521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}