Red Dirt, Green Heart: How Sedona's 10-Year Festival Diverted 89% of Its Waste from the Landfill

There's something special about watching a community celebrate a milestone the right way — with music, food trucks, dancing in the dirt, and a whole lot of care for the planet underneath everyone's feet. On May 30th, the City of Sedona marked the 10-Year Anniversary of the Red Dirt Concert Series with an all-day festival at Posse Grounds Pavilion, and the Green Team was honored to be there, making sure the celebration left the red rocks just as beautiful as they found them.

We're proud to share that together, we diverted 89% of festival waste from the landfill — a number that still gives us goosebumps every time we say it out loud.

Three Simple Habits, One Big Impact ​

None of this happens by accident. Behind every sorted can and composted orange peel was a volunteer who showed up, rolled up their sleeves, and chose to do things a little differently. Our Green Team and Sedona's own sustainability champions focused on three core initiatives to #StarveTheLandfill:

• ♻️ Recycling -- giving bottles, cans, and cardboard a second life 
• 🌱 Composting -- turning food scraps back into soil instead of methane 
• 🗃 Waste Sorting -- guiding attendees, station by station, toward the right bin 

​
It sounds simple. It is simple. And that's exactly the point — sustainability doesn't have to be complicated to be powerful.
​

​The Numbers That Made Us Smile

When 89% of a festival's waste skips the landfill, the ripple effects are real. To put it in perspective, the greenhouse gases prevented through this single event are equivalent to:

• 🚗 267 miles driven, never released into the atmosphere
• 📱 8,478 smartphones charged, worth of energy saved

​
These aren't just feel-good stats for a flyer — they reflect actual carbon that stayed out of the air because a community decided trash didn't have to mean "the end" for so many materials. This work also directly supports UN Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, a reminder that local action and global goals aren't as far apart as they sometimes feel.
​

It Takes a Village (And a Few Great Partners) 

Numbers like these don't happen in a vacuum, they happen because organizations across Sedona decided that hosting a great event and protecting the land could go hand in hand. Huge thanks to our partners who made this possible: 

• 🏛 City of Sedona — for championing zero-waste goals at every city-hosted event and giving the Red Dirt Concert Series a sustainable home for ten years running 
• 🌿 Compost Crowd — for making sure every food scrap found its way back to the soil instead of a landfill 
• 🔄 Sedona Recycles — Keeping the Red Rocks Green Since 1989, and still going strong​

​

​Meet the Green Team Behind the Magic

This event was led on-site by Amelya Keo and Oliver Renterria, supported by an incredible crew of volunteers and staff. Whether they were guarding bins, sorting waste in the Arizona sun, or cheerfully redirecting someone's compostable fork to the right station, every single one of them is the reason this milestone celebration is also a sustainability success story. 
​

Why This Matters to Us

At GreenLight Solutions, we're celebrating 11 years of helping events, businesses, and communities go green — and our mission has never wavered: to advance green careers and green business, and to make sustainability achievable and accessible for everyone. Events like Red Dirt Fest are proof of what's possible when a city, its vendors, and a community of volunteers decide that "business as usual" isn't good enough anymore. We're purpose-driven and solutions-oriented, and days like May 30th are exactly why we do this work.
​

​Want In? Here's How You Can Help Starve the Landfill Too 

• 🙋 Volunteer with the Green Team — Come sort, guard bins, and make memories at the next event. Sign up here.
• 🎉 Hosting an event? Let's bring sustainability to it. Schedule a Discovery Session with our team.
• 💚 Sponsor our programs — Reach out to our CEO, Ashley, at [email protected] to learn how your support keeps waste out of landfills across Arizona.

Thank you to everyone who showed up, sorted a can, or simply asked, "Wait, does this go in the compost?" — you're the reason this story has a happy ending.