Staff Photo by Kelly Wegel
Earl Graham, a plant manager at Orange Grove’s John F. Germ recycling center, pushes the first load of recylables from the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival into the back lot building of the facility on Dodson Avenue on Wednesday.

The tunes ended at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival late Sunday night and campers departed the festival’s Coffee County site. But tons of plastic bottles, aluminum cans and other materials remained.

Starting Wednesday, the Orange Grove Center on Derby Street received recyclable products from Clean Vibes, the Marion, N.C.-based company that contracts with Bonnaroo for waste and recycling services.

“We’re happy and honored that they’ve chosen to work with us,” said Austin Jett, Orange Grove’s recycling coordinator. “But at the same time, we’re capable of handling the amounts that they’re going to be bringing.”

Orange Grove Center workers “sort, process and market” recyclable products for the city of Chattanooga, Hamilton County and some businesses, Mr. Jett said.

Anna Borofsky, owner of Clean Vibes, said somewhere between 45 tons and 80 tons of recyclables — all mixed together — will be transported to Orange Grove through this week and possibly into next. Orange Grove was chosen because it can deal with the massive volume of materials and because it is a local organization, she said.

While most of the recyclable products will come to Chattanooga, about 20 tons were pre-sorted and taken to recycling facilities in Coffee County, she said.

Ms. Borofsky said each vehicle at Bonnaroo gets one plastic bag for trash and another bag for recyclables. She said she thinks the amounts of recycled items from the festival — which just completed its seventh year — are rising, creating a massive undertaking for Clean Vibes.

“It’s definitely a pretty daunting task,” she said. “Every year we get our system down a little bit better.”

Many of Bonnaroo’s attendees are “environmentally minded people,” Mr. Jett said.

“They’re going to want an outlet for their waste products that are recyclable to be recycled,” he said. “They may bring in lots of drinks and soft drinks in aluminum cans and plastic cans. They’re going to be happier with their experience knowing that those materials were dealt with in an environmentally … responsible manner.”