BIG NIGHT, SMALL FOOTPRINT

BOYC strives for zero waste impact at BIG NIGHT

When you live in a place like Yamhill County with such a thriving agricultural economy, Earth
Day takes on a new significance.

This community is extremely important to the Yamhill Enrichment Society (YES). As a project
of YES, an important part of the mission of Bounty of Yamhill County (BOYC) is to draw
national and international attention to the dynamic, local culinary scene. However, we want to
make efforts to protect our natural resources while promoting them at the same time.

BIG NIGHT, the grand finale of BOYC, takes place at Sokol Blosser Winery and features 20
local chefs collaborating with 20 local farmers to create 20 delicious dishes. Twenty-five local
wineries pour a variety of wines. As you can imagine, the potential waste from an event of this
size is enormous. This is why for the last several years, BOYC has partnered with Zero Waste
McMinnville to reduce garbage going into landfills.

Ramsey McPhillips, the president of Zero Waste McMinnville, says, BOYC has been the
perfect event template to roll out our real-time practice of eliminating all waste going to landfills.
We consider providing waste reduction education as our number one goal and have noticed a
clear uptick of improved zero waste behavior at BOYC over the last two years. Bravo, Susan
Sokol Blosser, for having the highest amount of waste diverted from the landfill of any event in
the county!

Last year, BOYC diverted almost 830 pounds of waste at BIG NIGHT. Ninety-six percent of
waste was diverted, meaning that fewer than 4 percent of that ended up in a landfill. More than
half of the diverted material was glass bottles and commingled recyclables with compostables
making up the rest.

This year, McPhillips says, Our goal is to assist in composting the BOYC food waste at the
vineyard so that the transportation footprint (and cost) associated with waste reduction is further
reduced. Composting onsite will get us even closer to our goal of zero waste from BIG NIGHT.

Join us in taking care of our planet by remembering to recycle your wine bottles and
plastic/cardboard/metal food containers.