Partnership will enable the Airlie Luncheon Garden Party to become the Festival’s first ever Zero Waste event.
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. – April 6, 2023 – Today A New Earth Project, a coalition of outdoor enthusiasts, industry-leading brands and innovative packaging suppliers, announced a new partnership with the North Carolina Azalea Festival. Dating back to 1948, this festival is a celebration of the southeastern region's beautiful first bloom of Azaleas. Since its inception it has since grown into a five-day festival with street fairs, home and garden tours, a Garden Party fundraiser, concerts, fireworks, and a parade. The festival begins April 14 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Supported by Atlantic Packaging, the largest privately held packaging company in North America, A New Earth Project launched its global effort to create, scale, and advocate for sustainable packaging solutions to help eliminate plastic pollution from the world’s oceans, lakes, and rivers on Earth Day 2022. This initiative brings together the voices of ocean and water advocacy groups with brands and organizations in the supply chain equipped to bring solutions to the table to remediate the problems that exist today.
"When the Azalea Festival organizers shared their vision for the Garden Party to be the first zero waste event of the festival, we knew this would be a great opportunity to collaborate and help them achieve this goal,” said Wes Carter, founder of A New Earth Project and president of Atlantic Packaging. “Wilmington is not only my hometown but also the location of the global headquarters of Atlantic Packaging. The goal of supporting zero waste events strongly aligns with our mission to rid the world's oceans, lakes, and rivers of plastic pollution, and we couldn’t be more excited to see this partnership come to life.”
Drinkware and foodware offered at the event will all be compostable or recyclable. Organizers are working with a compost service to ensure that all compostable items make it to the industrial facility. This includes eliminating single-use plastic drink bottles and serving water in recyclable aluminum cans. Organizers are sourcing reused and reusable items like tents, tables, chairs, and signage. They will also be communicating with patrons and sponsors about their sustainability efforts and will have directional signage to inform attendees how to dispose of items correctly.
"We know how important it is to focus on sustainability with an event of this size, and we're doing everything we can to create a zero waste event for the Garden Party,” said Meghan Tadlock, events coordinator for the North Carolina Azalea Festival. “We have been consulting with UNCW’s Office of Sustainability and this additional support by A New Earth Project allows us to cover all the bases to accomplish this goal.”
To learn more about the North Carolina Azalea Festival visit www.ncazaleafestival.org
About A New Earth Project
An initiative of Atlantic Packaging, A New Earth Project is a coalition of outdoor enthusiasts, industry-leading brands, and innovative, environmentally conscious packaging suppliers to find and scale sustainable packaging solutions to stop plastic pollution from ending up in the world's oceans, lakes, and rivers. As a catalyst to build awareness, increase education and inspire action, A New Earth Project brings together the voices of ocean and water advocacy and the global supply chain to solve these problems while providing sustainable packaging solutions for brands of all sizes through their website. Learn more at www.anewearthproject.com.
About the North Carolina Azalea Festival
The mission of the North Carolina Azalea Festival is to be nationally recognized as a showcase for our community's rich array of artwork, gardens, history, and culture through recreational, educational and family-oriented events. The Festival encourages volunteerism and civic participation as it contributes to the region's economy and promotes the unique qualities of Wilmington's river-to-the-sea community. Learn more at https://ncazaleafestival.org/.
ANEP Press Contact:
Eliza Bostian
Hughes Agency for A New Earth Project
elizab@hughes-agency.com; 864-271-0718