What happens at Red Rocks after the encore ends, the lights come up and thousands of concertgoers head home?
The real show is just getting started.
In this episode of Sustainably Speaking, host Mia Quinn goes behind the scenes at Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Katie Zarachowicz, Sustainability Administrator for Denver Arts & Venues, to see how one of the country’s best-known concert venues tackles recycling, composting and waste after every show.
Red Rocks consistently diverts more than half of its waste from landfill through recycling and composting. A big reason why? Instead of relying entirely on concertgoers to put everything in the right bin, Red Rocks takes sorting backstage. After events, crews separate materials overnight—sometimes working until sunrise.
What You’ll Learn
Mia and Katie explore what it really takes to make recycling work at a busy entertainment venue, including:
- Why back-of-house sorting can make such a difference.
- How smarter concessions and production decisions before an event can prevent waste later.
- Why recycling education still matters—even when someone else does the sorting.
- How recycling policy could affect venues like Red Rocks. Katie discusses Colorado’s emerging extended producer responsibility (EPR) program and the potential to grow markets for materials that are harder to recycle today.
- Why Red Rocks thinks zero waste may eventually be within reach.
And because this is Red Rocks, there are a few things you probably won’t hear in your average recycling conversation—like how to design recycling bins around bears, mountain lions and raccoons, which fans recycle best, and why Katie’s dream concert might be a little heavier than you’d expect.
Press play for a backstage look at how practical decisions, creative problem-solving and a lot of late-night sorting can help keep valuable materials in circulation long after the music stops.
