At a watch party for the U.S.-Australia match on Juneteenth in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, hundreds of people set up lawn chairs and laid out blankets in the park outside the public library. They would be here for several hours.
It was a hot day and the Seattle Parks Department had turned on the sprinklers to keep children entertained and cool while adults watched the match on a big screen. A couple food trucks offered Middle Eastern dumplings and ice cream treats.
The city had hired Perennial Zero Waste to help manage the trash and food waste. Perennial, a company that aims to help eliminate waste, has worked big events around the region. That day, it offered reusable cups and plastic “boats” to replace paper and thin plastic plates and bowls.
“In events where reuse is present, we are able to divert more food waste, typically, from the landfill and compost it appropriately than we would otherwise be able to," said Victoria Steward, the company’s project manager. "People are much more likely to scrape their food waste into the compost if they know that the dish is reusable and is going to need to be washed.”
According to Steward, people stop to think about where dirty dishes should go when they feel the weight of the hard plastics in their hands.
How — and why — to compost
Nearby, volunteer Kayah Swanson helped point people to where they should put the reusable containers, recyclables and food waste.
“It's really heartening to see how many people are excited to know that they put something in the right place,” Swanson said, standing next to the three bins. A master composter and sustainability steward, that day she was working for Seattle Public Utilities and for the gardeners group Tilth Alliance.
Swanson said most people there appreciated the education, which included providing the utility's charts showing which items are recyclable in Seattle. She also explained why it is better to compost food than to trash it.
"When food ends up in the landfill, it emits methane, and that is really not great,” she said. “It's a very potent greenhouse gas, and by simply composting that instead of putting it into the landfill, we're able to make sure that it breaks down aerobically rather than anaerobically.”
Key takeaways
- Holding a solid piece of dishware like a thick plastic boat can make people stop and think about separating the food from the dish — an important goal in trash management.
- Separating that waste is important because it reduces the amount of trash — and the methane that the trash creates in landfills. Methane is among the most potent greenhouse gases. Reducing food waste by diverting it to the local utility's compost stream is an easy way to cut those emissions.
- The tangible difference in experience helps change behavior; people behave as they would at home or in a cafeteria
Transit ridership ‘at capacity’
Sound Transit and King County Metro have reported record ridership numbers on Seattle's World Cup match days. That included approximately 280,000 riders for the U.S.-Australia match — a new record for the agency. Sound Transit’s previous single-day record was 220,000. There were more than 1.1 million rail and bus riders during the first two matches alone.
Key takeaways:
- Three of Sound Transit’s top five ridership days have been during the World Cup, which the local organizing committee said highlights "the importance of public transit in connecting fans to matches, citywide programming and other major events across the region."
- The new 2 Line between Seattle and Bellevue is a big relief valve. The line, which just opened in March, is getting a lot of use on match days.
- Riders report that some stations are cleaner than they’ve been in years as the city has spiffed up for the beautiful game — making mass transit more appealing during such events.
Lime bikes, scooters help with trip's ‘last mile’
Residents have seen many iterations of vehicle sharing for one-way trips, where you use an app to track your rides and what you owe. Many of these ride-sharing startups have phased out after they finished pilot projects in Seattle. Lime has persisted.
The company appears to be helping a lot — at least on game days — with the “last mile” connection to get riders to their destination. The city has encouraged bike commuters who can’t take their own bikes on trains to consider Lime. And it is working.
Key takeaways:
- According to the city’s host committee, Lime’s ride-share bikes and scooters have seen record ridership during the World Cup, taking more than 83,000 trips across Seattle on June 19 alone and making it Lime's highest-ridership day ever in Seattle.
- Parker Dawson, the company’s government relations lead, told KNKX that that record was almost 40% more riders than on their last record-breaking day, which was to celebrate this year’s Super Bowl.
- Across the first two weeks of World Cup matches, ridership came in at 675,000, which the host committee said showed “the role shared e-bikes and e-scooters played in helping residents and visitors move around the city during one of its busiest weeks of the summer."
Lime’s biggest challenge during the matches has been ensuring that people can park them and log out of the timer on their app, Dawson said.
So many of their vehicles are used during big games that they devised a valet system to help riders in spots all around Pioneer Square, the stadium district and the Chinatown-International District.
“We set up valet spots where riders could come, end their trips and leave their device with one of our Lime staff,” said Dawson. “Even in a situation where cell service was disrupted through cell tower overload, our staff could actually end rides for people. And then again: having them in these organized, predetermined locations.”
The valet service is free of charge. Dawson said in addition to helping people get around, Lime is also aiming for affordability, opting out of surge pricing and instead offering deals such as their Fan Pass.
The question of whether the beautiful game has helped Seattle meet some of its sustainability goals — and perhaps beautified the city in the long run — is something city leaders and advocates will be paying attention to long after the tournament has ended.
