OC Bike Fest Goes Green

OCEAN CITY, Md. – If you were in Ocean City on Friday, you probably heard a lot of engines revving.

That’s because Bike Fest is in full swing, but this year’s event has a focus on something other than just the motorcycles.

“We are bringing back recycling to Ocean City,” Josh Chamberlain, the founder of Go Green OC, said. “Bike Fest has been around for nine years, and they produce about 75,000 to 90,000 aluminum cans per event.”

Go Green OC is trying to make sure those cans don’t end up in landfills. But if you’re thinking that’s a long shot, don’t worry, Chamberlain says this year’s event is more like a trial run.

“The zero waste event does not really mean zeroing out waste completely, it just means recognizing what we can do better to sort of be more sustainable,” he said.

This is a small step that has received wide spread support.

“The bikers have been super supportive of us recycling, in fact while our volunteers are walking around collecting cans, they’ve walked up to us and told us thank you for doing it, we love how you are recycling at bike fest,” Chamberlain said.

“We actually check our garbage cans to make sure people aren’t putting cans into the regular bins, and then we take them out and put them in the recycle bin,” Rick Ketterman, with the Red Knights local chapter, said.

After seeing this support, Go Green OC says they’re already looking forward to next year’s event.

“This year is definitely a baby step for us, let’s make all of our mistakes and see how we can do better in 2020,” Chamberlain said.