Waste Reduction Goals
Each year the venues and entertainment industry contributes hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish to landfill. Each year EFS sends over 300 m3 of rubbish to landfill. This does not include waste introduced by hirers. If we include this waste the number increases to somewhere around 700 – 750 m3.
To do our part in leaving behind a sustainable planet for future generations we have adopted a target, and a plan to reduce our waste to landfill significantly and quickly.
The objective of this plan is to reduce waste to landfill from Eventfinda Stadium by more than 50% by June 30th 2021 and then increasing to 70% by June 30 2022.
Our Waste Management Plan has been divided into three stages to ensure anyone; guests, staff, contractors, hirers, exhibitors all take vital steps to play their part in contributing to a better future.
Each year EFS sends over 300 m3 of rubbish to landfill. This does not include waste introduced by hirers. If we include this waste the number increases to somewhere around 700 – 750 m3. This needs to decrease.
Waste Reduction Plan
The objective of this plan is to reduce waste to landfill from Eventfinda Stadium (EFS) by more than 50% by June 30th 2021 and then increasing to 70% by June 30 2022. This plan will be delivered in three stages:
Each year EFS sends over 300 m3 of rubbish to landfill. This does not include waste introduced by hirers. If we include this waste the number increases to somewhere around 700 – 750 m3. This needs to decrease.
Reduction actions are as follows:
From March 1st 2019 EFS will no longer serve anything in packaging that is not commercially compostable from any of our concession or F&B outlets. This will be a hard edge and will not be negotiable however, we have sourced plant-based alternatives from reputable local suppliers Innocent Packaging.
These include where clients, or vendors request specific things from F&B, these things must adhere to the waste management outcomes. We simply will no longer serve anything in single use plastics or items not able to be composted. Recyclable or biodegradable are not defined terms and are therefore not suitable. Please see the “what is the difference” link here for information on why.
From March 1st 2019 we will introduce a simple bin sorting protocol based around three factors we will ask our guests to self-judge.
- Did I buy it here?
- Did I bring it with me?
- Is it plastic?
- Is it glass?
Bins will be marketed according to these statements in order to help guests and clients judge what goes in which bins.
From July 1st 2020 EFS will no longer provide bin services to others including our anchor users.
All events at EFS will be hosted with a reduced number of bins locations that will present some or all of our labelled bins.
All waste will be sorted by our staff into the correct waste streams and taken off site to waste processing facilities by waste management companies.
Stage 1 – Education/Communication
All users regardless of their type will need to be updated on these new protocols and have enough time to inform their partners of the new requirements. Care should be taken to make sure everyone knows as far in advance as possible.
Distributed around the building will be a series of posters and on the video wall a video outlining the reasons for the change and supporting the separation in our bins. The objective is to passively educate our frequent visitors (players) on how the bin system works and what our aim is.
We acknowledge that we cannot control all elements of what comes into our buildings by clients or users. Many events held at EFS produce large amounts of mixed rubbish, in particular during the set up and pack down. Our aim in stage 2 is to reduce waste to landfill from EFS by implementing a “bring it with you, take it with you” process in order to encourage our clients to reduce their output.
Key steps in Stage 2 are as follows:
From July 1st 2020, EFS will no longer provide waste disposal services for any rubbish produced by clients or their exhibitors during the set up or pack down of their events. Clients can take their rubbish with them or alternatively, book and hire a waste bin where they can dispose of their rubbish. EFS recommends using Green Gorilla.
EFS will still supply rubbish bins to the public throughout the venue for all events. These will be our labelled bins pictured below. This rubbish is then sorted and disposed of through our recycling, compostable and general waste streams. Clients are welcome to use their own bin covers if they align with our streams.
The way our bins are labelled is important to our waste management plan as we only sell food and beverage in commercially compostable packaging and therefore the ‘did you buy it here’ bins should take all of the waste from food and beverage items purchased on site.
Attendees of ticketed events will be unable to bring food into the venue.
Stage 3 of the EFS Waste Reduction Plan will be one of the most important steps toward reaching our goals and spreads the responsibility of selling food and beverage in commercially compostable packaging only onto all vendors and exhibitors as well. It will take a combined effort by all. Details on this in stage 3 below.
Stage 2 – Education/Communication
Education of repeat clients began in 2019 in order to have them prepared for the 2020 & 2021 event calendar.
All waste leaving EFS will be sorted and tracked to ensure as much as possible is commercially composted by our partners at Green Gorilla and cross contamination is kept to a minimum.
EFS began the transition to commercially compostable products in March 2019 and has received great feedback from the public, clients and our team. We have reduced our waste to landfill and are on track to reduce this further. However, we cannot do this alone. We need everyone’s help and that includes those participating in events held at EFS from clients, guests and exhibitors.
Stage 3 focuses on exhibitors distributing any food and beverage products during any event and how it is packaged.
Reduction actions are as follows:
Any exhibitor selling food or beverages at an event held at EFS must submit a vendor application via our website prior to the event. This application will be assessed by the EFS management team and will either be approved or declined. No exhibitor of food or beverage will be authorised to operate at any event held at Eventfinda Stadium unless their vendor application has been approved.
Exhibitors seeking approval to operate can submit their applications through the vendor application portal on our Vendors and Sampling page on our website.
Additionally, any vending or sampling approved at EFS must use only commercially compostable packaging for all products distributed. All packaging of any sampled or distributed product must be stamped compostable and display a “7” on the base. Exhibitors must provide confirmation that their products are commercially compostable at the application stage.
If exhibitors are unable to provide suitable packaging, we are able to supply this through the EFS supplier at a cost.
Stage 3 – Education/Communication
Clients will be notified of these upcoming changes from the beginning of the 2020 calendar year to allow for a long lead in period for their exhibitors.
Reminders will be sent out to all clients in the lead up to October as a reminder of our upcoming level 3 changes being introduced from 1st October 2020.
We understand that change can be confusing for some, especially when they are used to operating in a different way, but the reduction of non-compostable waste is very important to the EFS team and we hope everyone can get on board.
We encourage all clients to contact their EFS Events Coordinator if they have any questions at all about our projects at any stage.
Waste Streams
In March 2019 we introduced a simple bin sorting protocol based around three factors we will ask our guests to self-judge.
- Did I buy it here?
- Did I bring it with me?
- Is it plastic?
- Is it glass?
These bins are located around the stadium are marketed according to these statements in order to help guests and clients judge what goes in which bins. All waste will be sorted by our staff into the correct waste streams and taken off site to waste processing facilities by Green Gorilla.
The way our bins are labelled is important to our waste management plan as we only sell food and beverage in commercially compostable packaging and therefore the ‘did you buy it here’ bins should take all of the waste from food and beverage items purchased on site.
External Waste & Reduction by Clients
Many events held at our venue produce large amounts of mixed rubbish, in particular during the set up and pack down. As part of our waste management plan, we have implemented a “bring it with you, take it with you” process in order to encourage our clients to reduce their output.
From July 1st 2020, Eventfinda Stadium no longer provides waste disposal services for any rubbish produced by clients or their exhibitors during the set up or pack down of their events. Clients can take their rubbish with them or alternatively, book and hire a waste bin where they can dispose of their rubbish. We recommended using Green Gorilla or Waste Management.
Eventfinda Stadium will still supply rubbish bins to the public throughout the venue for all events. These will be our labelled bins as mentioned above. This rubbish is then sorted and disposed of through our recycling, compostable and general waste streams. Clients are welcome to use their own bin covers if they align with our streams.
Compostable Packaging
From March 2019, all food and beverage sold on site is now packaged and sold commercially compostable products. sourced from Innocent Packaging. We have taken a green leaf from Innocent Packaging carefully sourced plant-based alternatives from Innocent Packaging.
Every burger, chip, hotdog and pie is supplied in fully compostable packaging – along with every knife, fork and napkin!
This Our ‘Only Compostable’ Policy is being rolled out to all our suppliers and should see further reduction in landfill rubbish – our aim is to be at zero landfill waste by the end of 2023.
Biodegradable vs Compostable
Let’s start with compostable materials…
There are currently two primary types of compostable materials in New Zealand: certified commercially compostable and home compostable. certified commercially compostable material is the most commonly used in large volumes. These products are usually made of plant based materials and hold a Code 7 (in the little recycle triangle) as their rating.
#7/PLA — indicates a plant-based resin that will degrade under certain conditions. Unfortunately, a landfill isn’t one of them, though that’s where most of them end up. They’re not very “biodegradable” in the wild, either. In truth, few communities recycle any Code 7 plastics, but at Eventfinda Stadium our #7 products are commercially composted which takes advantage of the #7 characteristic.
All products are biodegradable, its just that some take 6,000 years to biodegrade. We do not allow biodegradable products to be sold at Eventfinda Stadium.
Compostable has no set standard to it. This means products that may claim to be compostable actually cannot be composted in the facilities we use. Common mistakes include the assumption that inks which are printed on packaging or glues are compostable. These are not compostable therefore the product cannot be composted at our facility.
Commercially certified products break down much faster than conventional materials, but only in specific conditions and environments. An industrial composting facility exposes them to heat and different bacteria and also aerates the materials for sufficient oxidization.
There are limited facilities in Auckland and only certain facilities can access them. There is also very limited infrastructure for green waste and if products find themselves in there, the facility must send the whole lot to landfill as they are unable to separate the products from the rest of the green waste. In landfill, the products and green waste break down and create methane gas and carbon dioxide into the environment (greenhouse gases – which a commercial composting facility would capture).
At Eventfinda Stadium we have a relationship with Green Gorilla who own the largest commercial composting facility in Auckland. Where a #7 product finds itself at this facility it is shredded, heated, airated and blended before being onsold (approximately 16 weeks later) as fertiliser and mulch to market gardens.
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