Did you know, 90% of single-use plastic items, such as straws and cutlery, used at festivals end up as litter and in 2020, it was reported that 23,500 tonnes of waste had been generated over the year at music festivals alone in the UK? Events of all types, whether it’s conferences, music festivals, corporate events and exhibitions, produce significant waste. When this waste is not disposed of correctly, much of it ends up in landfills. In this article, we explore the types of common waste produced by events, strategies to manage waste and why it’s beneficial to dispose of waste correctly.
Types of waste produced by events
Food waste
Food is often one of the largest waste categories. It’s usually due to over-ordering, over estimating food consumption, unpredictable wastage, unsold food items, and ingredients.
Single-use plastic
This can include cutlery, plates, straws, cups, sachets and non-recyclable items that fill up waste bins.
Merchandise waste and giveaways
These items are often things that people don’t want, such as lanyards, brochures, wrist bands and registration badges. They can also include unwanted giveaways that contain synthetic fibres.
Construction waste
This can include building materials from stands, stages, banners, lighting, including packaging.
Hazardous waste
This can include chemical waste such as cleaning products, paints or adhesive. Biomedical waste such as gloves and sanitary items, or flammable Items such as solvents.
Top innovative strategies to manage waste
- Try digital solutions
You can use e-tickets, apps and online content instead of printed information. Use digital signage instead of printable graphics. At Whitespace Group, we have implemented digital strategies to reduce waste, such as replacing paper job packs with digital versions and reducing unnecessary printing. As a result, we have saved the equivalent of 68 trees annually.
- Use reusable items
Provide reusable cutlery, cups and bottles. Try to avoid single-use items in the first place. Reusable items can also be sponsored and provide branding opportunities. Known for its music and cultural vibrancy, Glastonbury Festival demonstrated its commitment to sustainability in 2023. Organisers implemented a ban on single-use plastics across the site, with 90% of waste either recycled or composted, as well as providing discounted public transport and local food sourcing.
- Ensure you have plenty of bin stations
Having recycling bins and general food waste bins in main areas can help you ensure visitors are disposing of waste correctly.
- Choose eco-friendly partners and venues
When it comes to choosing partners, find those that align to your values. For example, vendors who are passionate about the environment and pride themselves on being sustainable. Choose an eco-friendly venue that will further enhance your sustainability objectives. Many will include paperless offices, eco-friendly lighting, natural ventilation, choosing local suppliers to reduce carbon footprint, as well as place a focus on reducing food and drink packaging or offsetting their carbon footprint. At Whitespace Group, since 2022, we planted over 2,665 trees through our partnerships to support the environment and local communities. Choosing the right partner is important to us as it ensures we are sharing best practice with the industry. That’s why we work with suppliers who can provide comprehensive environmental and modern slavery policies, ensuring our supply chain aligns with our sustainability goals.
- Educate your guests
By sharing recycling tips at your event and the importance of it, your guests will not only help reduce waste at your event, but they may also apply their knowledge in their daily life. You could start with education content before the event, some rules to follow during the event, and some tips after the event that they can apply to their daily routine. This is also a good way of staying in touch with your attendees.
Benefits of innovation
Sustainable waste management not only reduces environmental impact but it is also beneficial to your attendees and partners. Here are our top 3 benefits:
- It protects the environment by reducing landfill waste as well as reducing greenhouse gases. Composting can also help reduce emissions as composting food waste converts it into nutrient-rich soil amendments instead of harmful methane gas.
- Recycling means you can save money on disposal costs. In addition, if you use reusable materials at your event you can make use of them at other events in the future. This could be reusable signage, graphics or construction. Recycling saves energy and cuts emissions from producing new materials. At Whitespace Group, our exhibition stands are designed to last up to 10 years and are recycled at the end of their lifecycle.
- It creates a positive brand exposure. Younger generations value sustainable practices more than ever, so it’s important that your values align to their expectations of you as it helps to build trust and loyalty among participants. You will also attract like-minded partners, increasing sponsorship opportunities, and enhancing collaboration potential. This will altogether improve the perception of your brand in the long-term.
During the Berlin Fashion Week in 2023, the show displayed its efforts on sustainability by including eco-friendly and upcycled materials in runway collections, built partnerships with sustainable brands, as well as running workshops and panel discussions to educate attendees on sustainable practices in fashion production and consumption. This is a great example of positive brand exposure due to how notoriously wasteful the fashion industry can be.
Conclusion
Every event will have its own waste challenges, no matter the size, type or scale of your event. But by reducing waste and emissions by using our top innovative strategies above, you can contribute towards climate goals and be a leader in sustainability in the industry. In fact, at Whitespace Group, we commit zero waste to landfill, meaning we recycle 88-91% of our waste, sending the remainder to energy recovery facilities. Our waste management efforts alone saved 99.2 tonnes of CO2e in 2023 by avoiding landfill. We also partner with organisations like Event Cycle to facilitate the donation and reuse of materials that are hard to recycle.