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YEAR 6 - 2025 - 60th Anniversary of HOCR!
Biggest news is that we hit a 60% diversion rate, just in time for 60 years of HOCR!
Building upon last year's success and increased compliance with our food vendors, we captured 7.5 tons of food waste!
We were also successful in diverting materials from the trash during the event and also during vendor set up. We recorded our lowest amount of trash.
Diversion rate is (recycling + compost) / (recycling + compost + trash) and calculates the amount that we diverted from the trash.
We have also been highlighted in the media!
RecyclingWorks Massachusetts did a great article on the success of our program: How One of the World’s Largest Rowing Events Reached a 60% Diversion Rate: Waste Reduction at Head of the Charles Regatta
And check out the great feature in the Berkley Beacon, the Emerson College student newspaper: Head of the Charles Regatta races toward sustainability, finds composting success
YEAR 5 - 2024
Thanks to improved compliance from our food vendors, we were able to capture the most compost since we began! We collected almost 6 Tons of compost (food waste + compostable containers), which is more than the previous two years COMBINED!!
We were also successful in diverting recyclables from the trash during the event and also during vendor set up. Unfortunately, there was an error by the contracted vendor who was cleaning up the site after the event, so one of our recycling dumpsters was contaminated and had to be disposed of as trash. This affected our diversion rate, but since we were very successful, we only saw a slight dip to a 47% diversion rate (49% in 2023), knowing that we are well ontrack to surpass our 50% diversion rate goal for 2025.
Diversion rate is (recycling + compost) / (recycling + compost + trash) and calculates the amount that we diverted from the trash.
And even with 2 tons of recyclables going into the trash - we are still keeping our trash tonnage low!
YEAR 4 – 2023
We had quite the rainy weekend, but still had a great turnout for spectators and racers. Saturday morning even had several course records! Our Sustainability volunteers stepped up and braved the conditions and we had the best results yet!
We’ve continued to push the boundaries towards our goal of zero waste and have hit our highest diversion rate to date—48.5%!
Diversion rate is (recycling + compost) / (recycling + compost + trash) and calculates the amount that we diverted from the trash.
But wait, there’s more! Not only did we achieve our highest diversion rate, but we also collected the most recyclables on record.
And a big shout out to our partner Black Earth Compost who picks up all the compostables collected over the weekend. Thanks again to our fabulous volunteers who help to make it possible!
YEAR 3 – 2022
We built upon our successes and had our highest diversion rate on record, 39%!
And even with record high attendance, our trash tonnages were not as high as the years prior to the introduction of the Sustainability committee.
2022 Media Coverage:
Making the Regatta More Sustainable: How ‘Head of the Charles’ Is About More Than Just Rowing, NBC10 Boston
Head of the Charles Sustainability featured on WCVB 5 Chronicle (video)
YEAR 2 – 2021
We built upon our success in Year 1 (2019) and had our highest recycling rate on record. We also saw a significant decrease in trash tonnage.
The recycling rate was 33%, up from 30% in 2019 and 23% in 2018.
Year 1 was a GREAT Success!
We saw a decrease in trash tonnage, cleaner recyclables, plus we captured compost and plastic film for the first time. Due to no single-use plastic water bottles for sale, the potential number recyclables also decreased, but we still captured more recycling than last year!
2019 media coverage:
Head Of The Charles Goes Green, Row2k
Head Of The Charles Regatta tackles waste problem, Berkeley Beacon
Historical figures show that from 2008 through 2018, HOCR generated an average of 16.60 tons of trash and 3.25 tons of recycling. Recycling was provided for bottles & cans, paper & cardboard. There was no option for composting or to recycle plastic film. Containers were not monitored, so there may have been potential for contamination in the recycling stream.
Here are the stats for 2019:
Trash decreased 21% as compared to 2018 and 24% when compared to the historical average (16.97 tons in 2018 to 13.41 tons in 2019). This is the LOWEST amount of trash we have collected since 2008.
Recycling increased by 12% (5.24 Tons in 2018 to 5.86 tons of recyclables (including plastic film) in 2019). When compared to the historical average, we see at 44% increase in recycling tonnage!
We collected over 5,000 pounds of compostables. Thanks, Black Earth Composting!
We captured 167 lbs of plastic film – that’s A LOT of film! Estimated at 3,845 garment bag equivalents (A typical garment bag from Brooks Brothers is a little under 20 grams). Volume-wise, it’s about 200 cubic feet of partially-compressed bags. Thanks, Obaggo!
The Recycling rate went up 6.5% (recycling rate = (total recyclables)/(total recycling + total trash) from last year.
The Diversion rate increased 15%! (Diversion rate = (total recyclables + total compost)/(total recyclables + total compost + total trash)
When comparing this year’s efforts to the historical average – we saw a 22% increase in the diversion rate! WAY TO GO!
(Please note we are missing figures from 2016-2017)
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