Environmental Beverage Action Group

From 14 – 16 March 2008 the annual WOMAD (World of Music Art and Dance) event was held in Taranaki. The event was opened by the Prime Minister who praised the effort that had gone into making it a sustainable event and she challenged the public to do the right thing throughout the three days. This was backed up by ongoing stage announcements asking patrons to sort their waste streams correctly at the recycling stations provided around the site.

EBAG would like to acknowledge the Glass Packaging Forum who supplied their mobile glass crusher and Transpacific Industries for facilitating the equipment and materials that enabled us to achieve a fantastic 86% recycling rate.

EBAG first got involved with WOMAD and TAFT (Taranaki Arts & Festival Trust) just prior to the 2007 event. While there was insufficient time to implement a fully functional recovery programme in 2007, work started on planning for the 2008 event. TAFT successfully applied for a SMF (Sustainable Management Fund) grant from the Ministry for the Environment to help promote the goal of working towards zero waste at this fantastic three day event. TAFT and EBAG worked closely together to set up a WOMAD ‘Towards Zero Waste’ working group, which consisted of motivated people from TAFT, EBAG, the Taranaki Regional Council, the New Plymouth City Council and three other environmentally interested team members.

Many meetings were held to plan the best design and recovery systems that would achieve the working group’s goals, which included the use of the EBAG Recycling at Events Guideline’s. This ensured that all bases were covered from the type of products and packaging that were to be used by the stall holders through to an integrated waste handling system that involved the waste and recycling operators, through to the public. Four double and three singular entry recycling stations were placed around the event, which had three separate entries where the public could place biodegradable, recyclable or residual waste into clear plastic bags.

These stations were also manned by volunteers who helped the public identify the correct place for each waste stream and samples of the waste streams were attached to the stations above the appropriate entries to further assist the public. A further 20 sets of 3 X 240 litre bins (for bio-degradable, recyclable and residual waste) for ‘back of house’ use (i.e. stall holders, stage crew and administration personnel) were also manned by volunteers to help ensure that they were used correctly. Each waste stream was then moved to a sorting yard where they were checked for contamination and placed in the appropriate bin for dispatch to the appropriate destinations.

Cardboard (flattened)    =          36 cubic metres
Glass (crushed)             =          3 cubic metres
Co-mingled recyclables =          21 cubic metres
Bio-degradable             =          30 cubic metres
Waste to landfill            =          15 cubic metres
Grand total                   =          105 cubic metres

Landfill = 14%
Recycled/Composted = 86%

The Environmental Business Action Group (EBAG), which brings together the private and public sectors, focused on three core objectives in year three:

Different systems of event waste management were explored at high profile events such as the Ellerslie Flower Show, Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park, Round the Bays and Womad. This has provided solid data of what does and does not work and is helping to crystallise a framework to help event managers.

Work continues with the Ministry for the Environment to introduce a nationwide network of public place recycling bins. Successful trials are anticipated before the end of Year Four.

The Business to Business mentoring process has developed as members engage with their own customers and suppliers. The Packaging Council and Fonterra ran a series of workshops through WasteMINZ under the EBAG banner. These workshops focused on simple, practical ideas which can be undertaken at any level within an organisation.

EBAG achieves 86% recycling rate at WOMAD 2008