Garbage Goddess is a solution to the trash left behind by traditional event breakdowns. Thoughtfully and intentionally created by Liza Lubell to raise awareness and consciousness, Garbage Goddess donates used decor and composts organic waste, diverting trash from landfills. Now that humans are more aware of sustainable practices, she wants to spread this love worldwide even if it's something really small you do in your day-to-day.
Garbage Goddess - Supporting the Earth Through Conscious Initiatives
To make it rather simple, Garbage Goddess is an eco-cleanup service for events of all sizes. The business, led and run by CEO Liza Lubell, offers a full breakdown service for florists, planners, venues, and hosts. At the end of each event, GG composts all organic matter, reuses and recycles all relevant materials, and returns supplies to its partner vendors. At Garbage Goddess, the team is a big fan of circles! As the company continues to grow, its goal is to facilitate 100% zero-waste events so everyone can party responsibly. You can read more about sustainability in the flower industry in the article 'Sustainability Defined - Understanding the Meaning of This Concept in Floriculture' to understand how sustainability has become an important concept across different industries, and as such, floriculture is no exception.
In the spirit of reusing, the team behind the successful business also offers a free flower pick-up for artists who use floral material in their work. Currently serving in New York City, The Hamptons, the Hudson Valley, and Los Angeles, there is a huge mission and vision behind Garbage Goddess and it's important to know why they do what they do, how they do it, and the entire process behind composting the flowers they use during any type of event. Liza understands that seeking and providing pleasure through flowers comes with serious responsibility.
Liza shares:
"We must change our relationship to that which brings us joy, lest we extinguish the sources of our wonder forever."
The Mission Behind Garbage Goddess
The mission is clear: facilitate deeper reverence for the planet. Liza has it very explicit and lucid in her mind. She wants GG to become the port of support for the earth through clean and conscious practices that will indeed help save the earth one flower at a time.
Liza notes:
"We created Garbage Goddess as a way to revolutionize the notoriously wasteful event industry. By creating sustainable options and leading by example, we hope that other party-makers and party-goers will be inspired to do the same."
The Garbage Goddess team is made up of freelance professionals such as artists, musicians, and teachers who care about their work and each other. Each team member works extremely hard to dismantle events, load trucks, return hard goods to clients, and divert event waste from landfills to their donation partners and composting facilities, often in the middle of the night. The community at GG extends beyond the composting center.
What they don't compost, they donate, and over the years, they've formed relationships with donation organizations such as material for the 'Arts and Schools', where event decor becomes fodder for artists, students, and teachers. Some of the flowers used at events are donated to local dye artists, such as GG's friends Erin and Kesiena, who extract the dyes for textile handicrafts and art, giving flowers a new life.
The 'Why' Behind the Company
Why do Liza and her team do this series of spectacular work and why do they offer these services to the industry? Events create waste. Much of that waste can be reused, composted, or recycled, but at the end of the night, with little time and less energy to dispose of things thoughtfully or properly, most event teams just throw everything away. The result is garbage bags piled high with unnecessary trash headed to already overflowing landfills.
When it comes to flowers, this careless waste is especially counterintuitive. By composting flowers and greenery, GG helps create organic topsoil and mulch from which new things will grow.
More About the Founder - Liza Lubell
Garbage Goddess was founded by florist Liza Lubell (New York's Peatree Flowers) back in 2019. She has spent over fifteen years producing and dismantling events. Disillusioned by the amount of waste that her industry created, she realized she could no longer work with flowers unless she meaningfully shifted the industry towards earth-supportive practices. During one particularly large-scale event, Liza and her team diverted a heroic amount of organic material (over three tons) from the landfill to the composting center. The seed for Garbage Goddess was planted, and they haven't worked any other way since. By creating a separate breakdown service for the larger event community, the owner has demonstrated that the company is not a niche concept, but a thriving and scalable business that is essential and urgent.
It's a curious and insightful concept at the same time and many are new to the world of composting and helping the earth one stem, flower, or event at a time. To know more details about the process behind it, take a peek at Garbage Goddess' website.
Photos by @garbage.goddess.
