The Good Day Out: Organising a Public Zero Waste Event
When I found out that my local council were planning a new community event with a focus on sustainability, and looking for community members to join the Organising Committee, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to do my bit. A big part of any event is waste, and waste minimisation happens to be my favourite topic! How exciting to showcase what can be done in my own neighbourhood? :)
My objective was to run a zero waste event. By zero waste, I meant no plastic (compostable, biodegradable or otherwise), no sytrofoam and no single use packaging. Whilst everyone was in agreement to ban plastic bags and balloons and other single use items from the day, the idea of banning single use packaging altogether was something very new to the council.
Could we provide reusables? Where would we source them? How would it work? Would we manage demand? Who would wash them up? What about health and safety? Would vendors get on board? How would the public react?
I put together a proposal for how I thought it could work, based on my experience with running other events, and the experiences of others I knew who’d run similar events.
Fortunately, the rest of the team were up for the challenge, and so I got to work planning and scheming :)
Our Proposal: Running a Zero Waste Event
All of our team had different roles and responsibilities with planning and running the event, and my responsibility was sustainability and waste. There were lots of other great sustainability initiatives in other areas (it was the overarching theme, after all) but my major focus was waste minimisation.
Our event was held in a local park, outdoors, with power and water available.
The first step was to outline our sustainability criteria, thinking about what would be practical and achievable. One of the key components was running a washing up station, which meant that we could request that all vendors used reusables rather than disposable packaging. Stallholders and food vendors who applied to attend had to agree to comply with our sustainability policy.
Here are some of the criteria for stallholders at the event:
- No use of styrofoam or plastic (including bags);
- No selling of bottled water;
- No single-use packaged samples of wares;
- No single-serve sauces, sugar sachets or condiments;
- No balloons at the event;
- Local suppliers considered where possible;
- No single use packaging for food/drink;
- Provide information on the source of all food and beverages, especially if fair trade or local;
- Provide a vegan/vegetarian option;
- Use recycled, sustainable, upcycled goods in workshops.
Whilst we asked that stallholders comply with our rules, we also provided the following to make it easier for them:
- We provided reusable cutlery and crockery free of charge for vendors to use, and a free washing-up service;
- We took responsibility for ensuring dirty dishes and empties were collected, and stallholders were restocked with clean crockery, cutlery and glassware;
- We discussed crockery and cutlery with each vendor to ensure its suitability to their needs.
In addition, we made the following provisions:
- We hired a water tank with water fountain and tap attachments to provide drinking water to attendees;
- We hired crockery and cutlery for use during the event;
- We organised a team of volunteers to wash up;
- We posted signage to ensure people understood what we were doing, and why;
- We ordered some extra bins to collect food and compostable waste, to take off-site and compost;
- We organised “bin fairies” to stand by the bins and help people put the right thing in the right bin!
On the Day: a Zero Waste Event in Action!
The Good Day Out Organising Committee (plus two performers who photobombed our pic!) Photo credit: K.A DeKlerk Photography
Our washing up station positioned in between the stage seating area and the food vendors, under a lovely big tree. Photo credit: K.A DeKlerk Photography
I’d love to tell you that it was perfect, but of course it wasn’t. There is plenty to improve on next year! For all the shortcomings, the day did work well, and the amount of single-use packaging we saved from landfill was tremendous.
One frustration was a food stall added last-minute to the event due to a cancellation. There was no opportunity to speak to them in detail about crockery before the event, and the products we hired weren’t suitable. They used cardboard-style compostable trays, and we collected these to compost.
It could have been worse (they could have used plastic!), but from a single-use perspective and also our objectives, it was not ideal, especially as it could have been avoided.
The juice vendor were at one stage handing out plastic straws, and plastic Biocups. They removed the straws when asked: they even put reusable metal straws on sale instead. They denied giving out the Biocups (I saw the Mayor put a plastic Biocup with a plastic straw that he’d been drinking from in the recycling bin – fails all round!) but did remove them from display after I mentioned it. They handed out a few disposable coffee cups too, despite having our mugs.
But overall, support from vendors, volunteers and the public was great. Looking at the bins at the end of the day and seeing them not even half full made my heart sing! And once everything was packed up, there was barely any litter in sight. Maybe not zero waste, but definitely near-o waste :)
The washing up station with some of the morning volunteers. The buckets on the right were for food scraps and compostable waste, and soaking cutlery. Almost out of view on the left hand side (behind the volunteers) is the table behind is the hot water urn. The final rinse uses sanitizing solution and water above 72°C to meet Health and Safety guidelines, and everything is air dried.
The washing up station in action! Photo credit: K.A DeKlerk Photography
The water refill station. There are water fountain attachments and taps for patrons to refill their own water bottles – no single use plastic required!
Dirty dishes at the washing up station. The hot water urn, which is a key part in sanitizing the dishes, is to the right of the image. The straw you can see is a reusable metal one!
The juice vendor sells juice in returnable glass bottles, which they refill. I personally fished 30 or so bottles out of the bin to return to them. More signage next year! (The straw on the ground is a metal one.)
Collecting dirty dishes from the food vendors. Soul Provider were absolutely amazing in supporting us, using only our reusable dishes and never falling back onto disposables. Plus they never stopped smiling! :)
Rummaging through the bins at the end of the day. This was one of our two recycling bins. They were 240 litres, and were not even half full. We managed to remove some glass bottles for reusing, and removed all the compostable cardboard trays (which had food on them) for composting.
This is Peg, with all of the compostable waste we collected. We had a ‘Compostable Waste’ bin and also collected food scraps at the Washing Up Station, but we still retrieved a bit from the other bins. Yes, it is in plastic bags. The bins had already been lined when we came to empty them. I assure you Peg will be reusing these bags many times!
What worked well:
- Team spirit! The whole Organising Committee was on-board with the idea of reusables from the start, so it never felt like an uphill battle. The council were also receptive to the idea, so long as it was safe. We put together risk assessments and health and safety guidelines to ensure it fully complied with council requirements, and had their approval.
- Support from vendors. Our event had a coffee truck, a juice truck that also sold coffee and three food vendors. They all had varying degrees of receptiveness to what we were trying to do, but overall we were well supported. Being clear from the outset of our goals definitely helped. Interestingly, we had more support from the stalls I hadn’t expected to be on board, and less from the ones I had.
- We saved so much stuff from landfill! We had two 240 litre recycling bins, and two 240 litre rubbish bins at the event, and each bin was between 1/4 and 1/3 full. There were other permanent bins located on the perimeter of the park where the event was held, but these were mostly empty.
- The washing up station worked really well, and the team of volunteers were awesome.
- Attendees of the event were very supportive of the washing up station, and commented on what a great idea it was.Hopefully it raised awareness as to what is possible, and got people thinking.
- The water bottle refill station meant there was no bottled water at the event.
- We collected all the compostable waste from the event, and took it off site for composting.
- We sorted all of the bins by hand to ensure the correct things were in the correct bins. Yes, I personally rummaged through the rubbish after the event ;)
What could have been better:
- Signage! We did have signage, but we needed many more signs, explaining what we were doing, and why. It isn’t enough to do it – we have to tell everyone why! Plus we could have explained the system better. It would have been great to have a sign explaining our ‘no single-use packaging’ policy at each food vendor so that the staff didn’t have to explain to every single customer that rocked up what was going on. Signs telling people where to return things, and signs telling people to come and grab our plates and glasses for their own personal use. Better signs for the bins.
- More communication! This definitely comes from experience, but more conversations and more discussion are always welcome – with volunteers, with vendors and with the general public. AÂ couple of stallholders reverted back to their disposable cups when they ran out of our glasses: this was spotted quickly, but we could have kept a better eye on it. Their priority was serving customers so as the event organisers, it was our responsibility to ensure the were well stocked.
- Bin Fairies. Because we needed so many volunteers for the washing up station, and it was a day when lots of other events were happening around the city, we didn’t man the bins for the whole day. Consequently, we found every type of waste in every type of bin. We sorted by hand after the event, but it was a missed opportunity to talk to the public about waste.
- Getting the right reusables. We hired a lot of equipment that we ended up not needing, and could have used extras of some of the other things. (Plus we had nothing suitable for the last-minute food vendor, except metal forks.) There was a feeling of it being better to have too much than not enough as it was the first year (which is true, of course!), but now we can use what we learned to choose better next time.
- Less waste. Of course, I am always going to say that! And actually, I was really impressed with how little waste there was. I’d love to eliminate the single-use compostable waste next year, and ensure we have enough reusable stock to prevent any emergency single-use packaging emerging.
I’m hoping to put together a “How to Plan and Organise a Zero Waste Event” resource in the near future, so if this is something that you’re interested in finding out more about, stay tuned!
Now I’d love to hear from you! Have you ever been to any zero waste, plastic-free of low waste events? What initiatives had they adopted, and how did they work? Was there anything that didn’t work quite as well as it might? Anything you’d have like to see improved? Have you run your own low waste events? What experiences (good or bad) do you have to share? What have been your biggest successes, and your most dismal failures? Any lessons learned? Are you hoping to organise a zero waste event, but not sure where to start? Did you come to the Good Day Out? What did you think? What were your favourite bits, and what could be improved on next year? Anything else you’d like to add? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!
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Wow! Impressive. I’ve never heard of anyone attempting this over here (Bristol UK) – which of course doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Would be amazing to see it in action. I bet many people like me who are keen supporters of recycling have just never before thought about taking it that much further to planning zero waste events. There must have been a great buzz on the day! Well done to all involved!
Thanks Mary! Oooh, you’re from Bristol – that’s my adopted hometown! I lived there for 11 years before I moved to Perth… sadly I wasn’t into zero waste or plastic-free at the time! But there are good things happening there I hear. Michelle who writes the blog “Being PALL” always seems to be involved in interesting things, including this: http://www.refillbristol.org.uk/refill-business/ If you google Bristol Plastic-Free a fair few blogs pop up too. So the community spirit is there! You’ll be having zero waste events of your own in no time ;)
Really interesting! I’m looking forward to read the “how-to” article!
Thanks Lee! I’m looking forward to sharing everything I’ve learned :)
This is wonderful! I’ve been enjoying your photos on Instagram, and it’s nice to hear more details.
Thanks Rebekah! Shame you couldn’t come along and see it for yourself! ;) Still, hopefully you got a good picture of it all…
I am totally interested in a resource about planning zero waste events. I gave a zero waste workshop in my city, but my experience so far is individual / family / residential, and I would love to know more about the logistics and special considerations for larger scales. This post was a GREAT resource! <3 Infinite thanks and no-waste love!
Thanks Natalie, I’m so glad you found it useful! I The impact we can have when we scale things up is so great – I love the potential :) For me to “refuse” that many coffee cups or plates alone would take years – yet in a single afternoon we saved thousands! Stay tuned for the resource – the pressure is on now to gt it done and help you out!
Amazing stuff! Well done and I am happy to see that something like this is indeed possible!! Hats down and hands clapped.
Thank you so much! Ah, most things are possible if there is enough drive and passion, and put in the work ;) I look forward to the day when this is the norm!
Awesome work, what a great outcome! For your reporting, it’d be good to capture the engagement you inspired on the topic. Is council considering applying these learnings to other events? What barriers to this did stallholders share with you? What kind of questions were the public asking at the washing up stain and the bins? Track any changes over time and definitely use direct quotes your reports :)
Thank you Rachel! We haven’t yet had our team debrief about the event, so the feedback I have personally received is limited, but I love all of those questions. Definitely things to think about! Hopefully the council will adopt this for future events :) I don’t think that our record-keeping on the day was fantastic, I was certainly too busy. But hopefully the council will have some useful feedback. The barriers from the food stall holders mostly stemmed from convenience – they were busy and didn’t want to take time out to explain to every single person what was going on. Which is fair enough, I think.
Thanks for the prompts Rachel, very useful! :)
I’ve only ever been to one event here in Hawai’i, but as far as waste went it was no where near your event. It was a vegfest put on by a local vegetarian market/deli and the Surfrider Foundation. It was nice, but although we brought our own containers, the event was primarily using compostable plates and a lot of plastic utensils and some cups. They did have small coolers with spigots for water refill, (nothing as awesome as your water truck) vegetarian and vegan food vendors, as well as local artisans (not really sustainable, like the local handmade soap lady who wrapped every bar in plastic).
The sad part was the vendors. They were so used to their plastic cups and utensils. When my daughter went to get sorbet, she asked before standing in line if she could use her stainless steel container, the vendor said he guessed so. When it was her turn, she handed him the container to scoop the sorbet in to, he made a grimace, just because it was out of his rhythm, I guess, the container was totally shiny and clean. As he scooped the sorbet, my daughter made a point of thanking him for using her container, as she was trying to reduce plastic waste. He nodded, then automatically reached for the plastic spoon to stick it into her bowl. The “Oh I have my own…(spork)” never fully left her lips. He shrugged and said “too late” and looked past her to the next person. She glanced over to where I was waiting and we both rolled our eyes. He was rushing to move the line along, granted, but it was frustrating. The other problem I noticed was the tendency to pre-wrap food items in an effort to speed up distribution, so that even though we had our own containers to use, they wouldn’t let us use them because the food was pre-wrapped in foil or already loaded on compostable plates.
THE POSITIVES:
They did have bin fairies monitoring the landfill, recycle and compost bins.
They did have the MC constantly reminding folks about the water refill stations.
Since the food was mostly vegan, all food waste was easily compostable.
There were NO STRAWS!
Room for improvement next year, but a good effort since I don’t think they were really going for zero waste in the first place.
Thanks for sharing your experiences! There’s always good mixed in with the less good. One of the things we were hoping for was more vegetarian and vegan food places. We did stipulate a vegan/vegetarian option provided: it was meant to be both vegan AND vegetarian, but it somehow got lost in translation. Sounds like your event did better on that front! Most of the stalls here were quite meat heavy, which I was disappointed about. We were lucky that all of our vendors were on board, even if to varying degrees.
I hope your sorbet guy doesn’t get invited back next year!
It’s all a learning curve. You think you’ve planned for everything, and then something happens on the day that you really didn’t think about! Still, this will become more and more the norm…I am sure of it! :)
It was interesting and informative to read your report – it’s a big job to take on however clearly very worthwhile. During these transitional times it is important to have examples of how we can make changes and being able to change behavior at large events is a great thing to do. I also look forward to your resource about creating zero waste events!
Thank you – I’m glad you found it useful! I totally agree – people think things “can’t be done” until they see them. It’s about getting out there and showing people!
I’m looking forward to getting it done! Hopefully it will mean more zero waste events popping up about the place! :)
Awesome article. The events we organise are in National Parks and Regional Parks. Although we’ve eliminated plastic bottles and try to limit the waste, we haven’t made the jump to zero waste yet. We do give prizes for people who collect rubbish while on the trails :) Would love to see how we can become zero waste.
Cheers, Melina
That’s great Melina! Plastic bottles are a huge burden on the environment, and I imagine more so in National Parks! I am sure you will get there ;)
Hi Lindsay, looks like a fantastic day! Hope to see something like this in Brisbane. P.S Have you seen this: http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/upload/resource-centre/publications/events/2010%20EVENTS%20GUIDE.pdf ?
Probably too much of a focus on recycling rather than reducing/refusing but still an interesting resource I thought- maybe some extra ideas in there for your resource which will no doubt be great. :)
Hi Lindsay! Inspiring post! We’re organising a Sustainable Living Expo in Albany in March this year, and hoping to minimise the waste. I was wondering how many people attended the Good Day Out? Cheers.
Hi Rachel and thank you! :) Oooh, that sounds like fun! To be honest, I have no idea of numbers as I was by the washing up station all day. I can check with ToVP and get back to you?
Fabulous! Well done!! Really inspiring and SO important. As a member of Cairns and Far North Environment Centre in Far North Qld I organised the festival kitchen for 14 years of volunteer run Envirofiestas until the last one in about 2010. Now they’re part of the Regional council annual Ecofiesta. My principles were much the same as yours – local, organic if possible, ethical etc. Over the years I trawled op-shops for cups, bowls, plates and cutlery etc so we never used single use plastic containers. We had a moveable triple sink set up on the grass and a service table with frozen bottles in boxes to keep stuff cold and a sneeze guard made from some perspex sheets found at the dump. We generally had salad wraps as the main lunch item which were always served on banana leaves – sourced from back gardens or organic growers so spray-free and later composted. We washed them & cut squares(ish) and the local health dept was fine with it – we always got a permit. And we never sold soft drinks or bottled water, just home-made fruit drinks and we juiced local fruit on-site with a Champion juicer. Next weekend I’m off to a music festival in the bush with my carry bag of plate,bowl,cup and cutlery so I don’t have to eat out of plastic – I did it last year and got some favourable comments. Here’s hoping there’ll be some copy-cats this time!!
Hi Lindsay, This is a great article. I work in the arts and events and I speak about this kind of thing all the time so it is great to see events taking on this challenge as I know it is a lot of work and commitment. You might be interested in this book which is coming out in its third edition soon and is actually edited by an Australian: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/113821762X/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk
I have really enjoyed reading your page since I was told about it earlier this year – it is great to be able to share useful and well-written information.
Kia Ora Lindsay, awesome mahi! can I ask you a few questions? I do zero waste (working towards) for events also. We have been going step by step for a while and are about to do our first wash station. I was wanting to eliminate all compostables for reusables but some stall holders freaked out, so we’ve decided this year to do a hybrid. We have been thinking a hire station for reusables, putting the onus on the punters, who can still just get compostables from the vendors. They would then wash reusables themselves under supervision. But after reading your set up, perhaps we would wash them to make it more attractive to punters and also less likely they would leave them lying around (did you have much issue with this?). Also, as you weren’t hiring them how did you work with those you couldn’t recover (lost, broken, stolen..). Because having items at the vendors sounds super great, but I’m not sure how to get around the hiring. And the wash station itself, were you then taking things to a steriliser, or the various stages with the buckets and then hot water from the urn at the end was enough? Might you have a document that details the set up? Thank you hugely, I’ve been trawling to find this info! Nga Mihi, kahu
One more thing! How did you work out how much of each thing to have?? This is for a Fri to sun event, with about 50 expected, mix of day visitors and campers.. Thank you for your thoughts!
5000 not 50(:
Hi Lindsay! Our school is planning our big festival again and although we did a great job reducing waste last time (it’s a key ethos of our school), I wondered if you were still working on your “How to Plan and Organise a Zero Waste Event” resource, or if I missed it?! It’s so helpful to see what others are doing and learning more… Thanks!