Iowa State Fair trash cleanup is a $520,000 lift
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Photo: Courtesy of Iowa State Fair
From flattened Barksdale cookies to corndog sticks, trash cleanup is a complex, $520K operation at the Iowa State Fair.
Why it matters: No one wants to step on a cheese curd — and a team of contracted workers and student volunteers helps avoid that.
How it works: Starting at 7am daily, around 125 contracted workers fan the fairgrounds in utility carts to check and empty nearly 1,300 trash barrels, Frank Robey, chief mission officer at the fair, tells Axios.
- That trash heads to one of six compactors at the fairgrounds and ultimately goes to the Metro East landfill.
- The fair also recycles cardboard and aluminum cans and uses special compactors for them.
When the fairgrounds close at midnight, around 75 people on the overnight crew use leaf blowers to push trash from the grass into the streets.
- Street sweepers pick it all up, and dumpsters head to the landfill in the early mornings, Robey says.
Zoom in: This year, students from Southeast Polk will clean the grandstand after evening concerts, starting from the top of the stands and walking back and forth — throwing cups into trash and liquid into buckets.
- They'll get a $15,000 donation for 11 nights of work that will go to the wrestling team.
By the numbers: Last year, 729 tons of garbage were hauled to the landfill — more than the 590 tons in 2021 when attendance was down.
- 166 tons of recyclables were collected last year — a jump from just 20 tons in 2021.
- And 1,055 tons of livestock bedding were composted, down from 1,750 tons in 2021.
What they're saying: Serving food on a stick isn't just an easy way for people to walk and eat — it also reduces the packaging that fair officials have to consider, Robey says.
Reality check: Some days, it's still too much — crews couldn't clean up fast enough during the fair's record-breaking attendance day last year, when 128,732 people came on a Saturday.
- The next day, visitors encountered an unusual sight: some overflowing trash cans.
Yes, but: The one thing you likely won't see is stickers. Fair officials discourage stickers because people have a tendency to put them everywhere — sidewalks, benches and bathrooms.
- "It's fun for them to do, but in the end, it's not so fun for us to try and peel off," Robey says.