Beginning with the first Spring Garden Festival and in every festival since, the organizing committee has tried to minimize our environmental impact. We have done this in a variety of ways starting by requiring our food vendors to use recyclable or compostable products rather than plastic or Styrofoam. Patrons have been asked to help by sorting and placing their discarded materials into one of three labeled collection containers: compostable, recyclable, and trash.

While each of our volunteers helps to check the festival and help in our environmental effort, Paul Still and Jeanne Economos initiated the policy at the first festival and kept it going for a number of years after that. Mary White has taken on the task of keeping us "green" for the past few festivals.

The Spring Garden Festival maintains a team of volunteers who collect and sort the materials during the festival. At the end of the festival we typically send less than one pick-up truck of waste material to the landfill. All of the other materials are either composted on site at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens or sent to recycling centers.

As a result of our efforts we have received several environmental awards and recognitions from the city and county.