Fair trying out green scheme

Environmental efforts take the stage -- from recycling to saving energy on lights

RALEIGH -- Going green at the N.C. State Fair used to mean too many rides on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Now, though, it has come to represent an incremental effort by those who manage the fair and the fairgrounds to reduce their impact on the environment.

Fair visitors might notice several environmental efforts, starting with an exhibit called Green NC, just inside Gate 11, that will show them ways to reduce their carbon imprints and invite them to promise to be better environmental stewards. Those who pledge will receive tie-dyed T-shirts or reusable grocery bags.

For the first time this year, visitors will be able to recycle aluminum drink cans and plastic bottles, dropping them off at four stations around the fairgrounds. Volunteers will man the stations to try to keep guests from dropping other trash into the bins. If the test is successful -- meaning only recyclable materials go into the bins -- the project will be expanded next year.

That's an attempt to cut down on the estimated 1,700 tons of trash that's hauled away from the fair each year.

Then there's all that cooking oil. Last week, three 1,000-gallon underground tanks were installed on the fairgrounds to hold used cooking oil from the dozens of food vendors that set up at along the midways. About 8,000 gallons of oil will be collected and converted to biodiesel, then put in the tanks of tractors and combines on state-owned research farms or of tractor-trailers that deliver commodities to schools.

"I'm kind of proud of us," Bill McClure, facilities engineer for the fairgrounds, said Wednesday. "We're trying. Some of the stuff that we're doing now, we've been talking about for 20 years."

As money becomes available, the state has been switching out the exterior lights throughout the fairgrounds. The new lights, McClure said, are directed downward so that no light is wasted by being beamed into the sky.

The red lights that run along the undulating perimeter of Dorton Arena are LED replacements for fiber optic lights that used to trim the building. And many of the new rides along the midway are lit with LED bulbs, including the 100-foot tall Vortex, which gives riders a 60-mph jolt of 3.8 G's.

Charlie Belknap, marketing director for Powers Great American Midways, said the light package alone on the Vortex cost $42,000, with each computer-programmed bulb costing $40. But an LED bulb uses just a half-watt of energy, compared to the traditional incandescent bulbs on rides that typically use 100 watts.

To cut down on the amount of gas burned while cars are sitting in traffic or circling jam-packed parking lots, fair officials are encouraging visitors to used park-and-ride options. Shuttle buses will run from Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Research Triangle Park.