Maha volunteers direct people to the correct bins at the 2022 Maha Festival. Photo by Audrey Hertel taken from the Maha Festival website

The 2022 Maha Festival accomplished a major sustainability goal, thanks to Hillside Solutions, a local compost pickup service.

At this year's festival, Hillside Solutions worked with more than 100 recycling volunteers from organizations such as Maha Festival and OPPD to achieve its zero waste objective and educate Omahans on the importance of composting. Volunteers helped festival-goers use the recycling and compost bins instead of trash cans when applicable, eliminating waste that typically occurs when people don't know which items are compostable.

Brett Crampton, director of partnerships for Hillside Solutions, says the Maha Festival is more than likely one of Nebraska’s first large-scale zero waste events. About 9,000 people attended the city's annual music festival in 2022.

With the help of Hillside Solutions, Maha achieved the following milestones: 

• 1,400 pounds of compostables were collected and will be turned into soil at Hillside Solutions' composting farm in Ashland
• 4,754 pounds were saved from a landfill ⁣— 90% of the total on-site waste
• 5,000 plastic water bottles were never used thanks to the festival's First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) Free Water Stations ⁣

Read this Maha Festival blog to learn more about the zero waste results.

Watch this video from Hillside Solutions to learn more about the process of achieving zero waste: