GREEN

Seeing Green: T-Day to be Earth-Friendly Once Again

Townshippers’ Day Ayer’s Cliff will be a colourful event this year, from painted faces to blue skies, and the whole thing will have a distinct shade of green. Anaïs Renaud and her Green Team are working hard to make sure this year’s event follows the recent trend of eco-friendly T-Days.

Since 2006, when Townshippers’ Day was held on the Richmond Fairgrounds, recent T-Day committees have significantly reduced the amount of waste generated by the event – no small feat, considering between 8,000 and 10,000 people attend each year. Last year, just one bag of garbage was produced, and the public stored all their purchases in reusable fabric bags.

T-Day Ayer’s Cliff will follow suit: as in previous years, the food vendors will serve their delicious goods on compostable dishware. Visitors are also encouraged to bring their own reusable bags from home, to cut down on the plastic used.

But Anaïs and her crew are going even further this year, with hopes that their efforts on T-Day can have a lasting effect. In previous years, there was a team of volunteers at each recycling station, sorting through visitors’ refuse, which was simply dropped off. This year, the visitors will be putting their odds and ends into the proper bins by themselves (with a few volunteers still on hand, to help out – look for the folks in the green shirts).

Given the natural charm of the Eastern Townships, we owe a lot to our surroundings. This green event will go a long way to ensuring that the Townships stay beautiful for a long time to come.