Even the “greenest” fair in North America couldn’t avoid throwing out an estimated 300,000 kilograms of waste on its first weekend, according to the facility’s services coordinator.

Brian Dow said over 18 days, from Aug. 19 to Sept. 5, the Canadian National Exhibition collects about 1.8 million kilograms of waste. The CNE also boasts an “extremely aggressive” waste-diversion program designed to offset the fair’s environmental impact, said general manager Virginia Ludy.

And though CNE staff says they’ve diverted about 86 per cent of waste from landfills in the last decade, they’re still looking for ways to improve.

“There’s still 14 per cent to get better at and hopefully at some point in time, we’ll get to a complete 100 per cent diversion,” Ludy said.

Food waste is especially focused upon, with at least 111 vendors in the food building this year, 26 food trucks scheduled to arrive next weekend and about 1.6 million visitors — most of them hungry — to the fair.

By the end of each night, donating leftover food that’s already been prepared poses health risks, so vendors try to make only as much food as they need, Ludy said.

“This is a huge issue that’s kind of coming up I think in the food industry, because when you look at how much waste comes out of restaurants, it’s quite significant,” said Ludy.

“Can we, at the end of the day, have food that’s spread across a 195-acre site, bring it to one area where you can ensure the temperature’s controlled and you’re maintaining it in a healthy environment? (That’s) difficult to do.”

Ludy said the CNE encourages vendors to donate dried goods or unopened items to food banks at the end of the fair.

Lori Nikkel, the director of programs and partnerships for Second Harvest, said they’d be willing to pick up leftovers. Second Harvest partners with 220 social service agencies to redirect perishable food into the community within 24-48 hours.

Rather than composting perishable food at the end of the night, Nikkel suggested CNE reach out to her group.

“(Composting) should be your last stop,” Nikkel said. “It’s a value chain. If you look at the value chain for food, it’s people first, then animals, then compost, then waste.”

Dow said the CNE has about 25 categories of waste to keep track of, from organics to sand, cement, manure, cardboard, batteries and more. Yet they’re still trying to educate the public on one of the most basic concepts — composting.

“The public doesn’t make it easy for us,” said Sammy Feltmate, the lead cleaning supervisor in the food building and one of about 600 housekeeping staff contracted for the CNE’s tenure. (Fifty staff, including Feltmate, work at Exhibition Place year-round.)

They eyeball each clear bag of waste to determine how much of it is actually organic and can be thrown in the compost bin. If there’s more than 10 per cent garbage in the bag, it has to be thrown in the trash, Feltmate said.

He can barely pause to talk as cleaners roll bins of waste into the disposal room, minutes apart.

“This is like a highway, eh? You guys have got to give each other space,” he explained to the crew.

Most of them are young students and for some, it’s their first job — trying to help the environment amid the raucous, sweaty bustle of the CNE.

“This is the hardest job for the whole CNE. I don’t know if you’ve seen, but all of the other jobs, sure it’s busy, it’s hard — but nothing like this. This has the most volume,” said Feltmate.

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Arguably the wildest ride of the CNE is happening in the garbage room.

Weighing in on food waste

Vendors discuss how they conserve grub

There are at least 111 food vendors in the CNE’s food building alone this year, plus 26 food trucks that will roll up next weekend. Three of them discuss how much waste they accumulate during the fair.

Daytona Chicken Wings

“Does it look like I throw out any food?” joked Daytona Stoyan while rubbing his belly. The co-owner of Daytona Chicken Wings said after 27 years at the CNE, his crew can estimate the number of people they’ll serve daily and cook accordingly.

“Luckily we don’t serve crickets or we don’t serve cookie dough or we don’t serve novelty food. We serve real food. So here it’s a little bit different because I can eat my food all the time because it’s chicken and ribs,” he said, adding he often sends staff home with leftovers for their families.

Bouchard’s Poutinery

Staff from Bouchard’s Poutinery said they start to slow down production around 8 p.m., phasing out cooking ground beef, bacon and gravy so they have very little food left by closing at 10 p.m.

“We don’t have a lot of product that needs to be thrown out,” said manager Maj El-Shuli.

He couldn’t ballpark how much garbage they throw out daily, but said it was “quite a bit,” calling the recycling system at CNE “quite the machine.”

The Colossal Onion

Known for their blooming onion platters, manager Eric Power said The Colossal Onion produces mostly organic waste – a dozen bags a day, sometimes two dozen, he said. The amount of waste fluctuates with the popularity of the CNE on any given day.

Leftover batter and onion remnants are the main waste culprits and those are all composted, Power said. They also have agreements with some of the other vendors to share their onion scraps.