ST. LOUIS – Thousands spent the weekend celebrating international culture and highlighting eco-friendly living.
It was all part of the annual celebration of Earth Day in St. Louis. This year was the 29th celebration at Forest Park.
Trying to do good by the planet is something everyone can benefit from. Bob Henkel is the program director for Recycling on the go, he said on Saturday a lot of people learned the basics about recycling and how it can help the planet.
"Trash is just something to throw away and then we don't use it. But for recycling we look at how can we get the materials into their next best use," Henkel said.
During the festival recycling wasn't just promoted to the guests, more than 200 vendors at the festival also found ways to limit their carbon footprint.
“So we made sure that all of our food vendors were serving utensils for the food with something that we can actually compost, like corn base plastic,” Henkel said.
Brian Pelletier from Kakao chocolate was one of those vendors who said being a conscious consumer can have an impact.
"We only have one planet we need to take care of that. Everything leads to sustainability it’s how to use less, how to reduce, and reuse and recycle, just like the phrase says," Pelletier said.
In addition to recycling, Pelletier uses energy efficient equipment, and the ingredients in his chocolate are all natural making sure his business remains sustainable.
Pelletier said people who recycle the right way are protecting the environment and it’s something everyone should appreciate.
