As event producers and experiential marketers, your job is to be a catalyst for connection, celebration, and memorable moments. Earth Day may only be once a year, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still play a significant role in environmental stewardship and reducing the impact of your event. In this guide, we will present you with preventative strategies ranging from how to eliminate plastics, manage food production and waste, implement landfill diversion strategies, and maintain a clean venue all while producing a beautiful and streamlined event.
For decades now, top environmentalists including Rachel Carson, Bill McKibben, Jane Goodall and James Hansen have been sounding the alarm that our species is on a collision course with Mother Nature. As of this writing in late 2024, the daily average reading for atmospheric carbon dioxide is 424.60 ppm, far past the 350 ppm deemed by scientists as the safe upper limit.
The continued dumping of over 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year coupled with the 2.01 billion tons of solid waste created annually is doing nothing to stem the tide of self-destruction humankind is inflicting upon its only home.
Confronted by these facts, most of us feel overwhelmed and helpless since the problem seems both abstract and beyond our ability to effect change. However, nothing could be further from the truth, as even small measures magnified over time can have a large impact. As event professionals, there are a myriad of opportunities to reduce the negative effect your event creates on the environment. Festival producers, experiential marketers, concert promoters, and event planners are all highly skilled at identifying little details to make their event stand out. Why not take that skillset to the next level and look for opportunities to reduce, reuse, and recycle?
Statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency show that the average person generates around 4.9 pounds of waste at home daily. While the average rule of thumb for events is one pound of waste per person per meal, the reality is that for larger events, that does not take into consideration production builds, banners, sewage, audio-visual waste and other detritus that are a consequence of the commercial and ephemeral nature of events. At larger events like outdoor music festivals, guests can generate an average of 3.53 lbs of waste per person per day.
Event planners shouldn’t think of incorporating sustainable products and practices as an afterthought, but rather as a critical part of both the planning and execution phases.
What does it mean to be truly sustainable?
Sustainability is defined as “practices that avoid the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain ecological balance.”
Integrating sustainable practices and materials not only can have significant impact on an event’s environmental footprint, but also funds sustainable businesses allowing them to thrive, making their products and services more profitable and as a result, more mainstream as well.
Before we dive into how to make events more sustainable, let’s first evaluate where this event waste is coming from and the consequent issues of these types of waste.
Events have three major waste sources: food, packaging, and transportation. Whether your event has food trucks or catering tents, food and the food wares the food is served in are the biggest physical drivers of waste creation at events. Utensils, cups, lids, cans, bottles, napkins, straws, containers, plastic wrap, not to mention all the packaging the food and food wares were delivered in…all head up the Event Dirty Dozen, a list of the top waste categories.
April is one of the most exciting months. Not just because it’s spring which means that flowers are blooming and the sun sets later prolonging the afternoon, but also because that means Major League Baseball is back. As a die-hard Yankees fan, nothing is better than the re-emergence of pinstripes and hearing Michael Kay yell “see ya!’ when number 99 or 27 hits the ball out of the park.
But if you’re passionate about sustainability, it’s hard not to think about the other side of arena sports—the enormous amount of waste generated for just one game. Now multiply that by one hundred sixty-two. There are the cups for drinks, the lids, the straws, the cardboard containers and trays that carry the drinks to your seat, the popcorn tubs, the Cracker Jack boxes, the foil hot dog wrappers, the plastic baseball caps for the ice cream sundaes, the cardboard and plastic and pallets needed to deliver goods to the stadium, the price tags and bags at the fan shop, the paper wrappers, the bottles, the aluminum cans, the broken pieces of stadium furniture or equipment, the food waste, the left behind or discarded items in the seats and bleachers, the receipts, food waste from concessions, spoiled food, discarded uneaten food, leftover cooking oil, sewage from restroom use, audio-visual and electronic waste from the camera crews, television producers, and radio booths, lanyards and name badges for personnel, and, of course, at least 90 to 120 baseballs that are used in the course of the game.
That’s why MLB has actually partnered with Waste Management to increase the circularity of their material use, create landfill diversion strategies, and calculate their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the GHG Protocols.
Branding activations might not have the volume of people as a concert or festival or sporting event, but the installation builds alone can generate several dumpsters worth of construction waste including plastic, foam, wood, nails, paint, carpet, cardboard, electrical wiring and components, drywall, adhesives, and metal in addition to the food and food wares, lanyards, and other staples of event paraphernalia.
Globally, an estimated 1.4 billion tons of food waste is generated annually, about one-fifth of the food produced for human consumption. The average event wastes between 15-20% of the food it produces. This is problematic not just for the environment, but also for its economic impact as well.
Food waste is the largest single category of material placed in landfills according to the Environmental Protection agency. When food waste decomposes under anaerobic (oxygen-deprived) conditions, it creates methane gas, one of the most significant contributors to climate change, a gas almost thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane traps more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 and is considered by scientists to be responsible for about 30% of the rise in global temperatures. Some cities, like Boston, are banning food waste from landfills to mitigate methane emissions.
Cooking oil, which has been in use by cultures for thousands of years to add flavor and reduce burning, presents an entirely separate set of issues from food. Once cooked the resulting byproduct clogs kitchen pipes and backs up sewer lines. Over time, grease coats the pipes and once that build up hardens, those pipes will eventually crack. Oil that leaks into sewer lines makes drainage impossible and can lead to sewer overflow in the streets. In fact, the number one reason for stopped-up sewer pipes is cooking oil that has been incorrectly disposed.
Whether or not events are staged at established venues with on site kitchens or held outside with food trucks, each food vendor generates gallons of cooked grease. If that grease gets dumped into the ground, it can leach into groundwater, poisoning plant and animal life and creating brown spots where greenery can no longer grow. Pouring leftover grease into a sewer drain all but guarantees eventual sewage pipe breakage which then expels feces onto the street and possibly into waterways. This is not only a biohazard but also a source of devastating illnesses like cholera.
Plastic is, bar none, one of the worst culprits in terms of damaging human health and the environment. Invented in 1907, plastic began to be widely used starting in the 1960s right around the time Mr. McGuire told Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate: “I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.” Now it’s so omnipresent, it’s hard to think of how we ever lived without it.
Apparently we are also living in it, because humans now ingest about the equivalent of a credit card of plastic each week. Soon we won’t need Apple Pay. We will just be able to scan ourselves at the register. How is this? Plastic never biodegrades, but simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles, known as microplastics, which then infiltrate humans, animals, the soil, waterways, plants, the ocean, and aquatic life. The resulting landscape has become ecologically unsound.
Microplastics are extremely harmful to human health. They can create oxidative damage and harm DNA, both of which contribute to cancer. Some chemicals in plastics, called xenoestrogens, lead to hormonal issues and metabolic disorders. Petrochemicals that plastics are made from disrupt the endocrine system and cause reproductive issues. Microplastics can embed themselves in plaque, lining arteries, contributing to heart attacks, stroke, and arterial disease.
Microplastics are extremely harmful to human health. They can create oxidative damage and harm DNA, both of which contribute to cancer. Some chemicals in plastics, called xenoestrogens, lead to hormonal issues and metabolic disorders. Petrochemicals that plastics are made from disrupt the endocrine system and cause reproductive issues. Microplastics can embed themselves in plaque, lining arteries, contributing to heart attacks, stroke, and arterial disease.
Since only 9% of all the plastic ever created has been recycled, most plastic gets incinerated, causing environmental pollution which can be toxic to animals and humans. Lung cancer rates are high near burn pits, and plastic waste runoff can leach into air, water, and soil, contaminating our food.
According to CalRecycle, California’s website dedicated to “protecting California’s environment and climate for the health and prosperity of future generations through the reduction, reuse and recycling of California resources, environmental education, disaster recovery and the transition from a disposable to a fully circular economy,”, Californians throw away 290 swimming pools filled with plastic per day. Plastic creates an enormous carbon footprint in its straight-to-landfill lifespan in which materials are excavated, manufactured, shipped and transported, used, disposed, and then incinerated or buried in a landfill.
Speaking of pollution, currently the ocean contains more plastic than biomass. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), swirling with approximately 2 million metric tons of plastic, harbors the largest accumulation of plastic in the world. Located between Hawaii and California, and estimated to be three times the size of France, the GPGP is the largest of five plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans—the others located in the Indian Ocean, the southern hemisphere of the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Brazil, and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Offshore currents push these more buoyant plastics over miles into the vortex of the Patch where they photodegrade into microplastics from the erosion properties of the sun and sea. Not only is this horrific for ocean life—search the web anytime for photos of sea turtles with plastic straws jammed up their noses or fish strangled by soda rings—but it’s also dangerous for life on earth as a whole.
Oceans, which are currently threatened by overfishing, pollution, and climate change, is a major carbon sink. Plankton, and any other animal with a hard skeleton like krill and crabs and lobster, store carbon in their body. As plastic accumulates and temperatures rise, more algae leads to more acidification, dissolving the skeletons and hard shells of these creatures. Larger animals would lose these food supplies. Not only that, but the oceans are the lungs of the earth with phytoplankton producing over 50% of the atmospheric oxygen. If the oceans die, all life on earth dies. There is no other way around that.
Scientists have analyzed ear wax in whales and found traces of pesticides, paints, and plastics. These toxins get passed on to offspring or prevent mammals from reproducing, depleting wildlife populations. As the water gets warmer, algae and cyanobacteria create algal blooms which eat up oxygen, creating dead zones that also harm marine life and ecosystems.
There are slightly more than 3000 active landfills in the United States that consume over 1.8 million acres of land. The average landfill is around 600 acres, which destroy natural habitats for flora and fauna.
Some landfills, like Michigan’s Pine Tree Acres, have started to incorporate innovative technologies to support non-hazardous waste disposal and lessen our footprint. Groundwater monitoring, methane capture with a gas collection pipe, and an onsite generator to transform the methane into electricity are intended to protect the planet and reduce harmful emissions.
Aside from methane, landfills also produce carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen, which can create smog. Landfills are required to have liners to prevent leaking, but many leak anyway, creating leachate, a liquid with high levels of ammonia, which damages ecosystems, particularly waterways, creating dead zones in rivers and lakes, and killing aquatic life. Leachate also contains mercury, which is poisonous.
Landfills aren’t just detrimental to wildlife and the environment; they also pose health threats to the humans who live near them. Given that most landfills decrease the value of adjacent land—anywhere from 3-13% of a reduction—they tend to be situated in low-income areas and predominantly near minority communities, both of whom have fewer resources to fight landfill development and the risks that come along with it: namely odor, smoke, noise, environment contamination, and bugs. Most worriedly, and worse of all, is that families who live within a mile perimeter of landfills have a higher incidence of asthma, more risk of congenital malformations and disorders, and higher incidences of cancer and spontaneous abortions.
Transportation to and from the event is the largest contributor to carbon emissions at events, accounting for around 80% of its carbon footprint. Many events that are annual “go-to” destinations like Essence Festival in New Orleans, college football homecoming games, ComicCon, and Burning Man. While the latter advertises and aspires to “inspire sustainable solutions around the world,” the festival generates at least one hundred thousand tons of carbon dioxide each year, most of which comes from vehicle emissions as a result of over twenty thousand people traveling to and from the festival. Private jet planes also account for a portion of those emissions, from those opting for the quicker route to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Transportation is one of the largest contributors to climate change along with energy, deforestation, and agriculture. Therefore, this is a missing and somewhat hidden piece of the puzzle in terms of reducing an event’s carbon footprint since coming and going takes place outside of the time and footprint of the event.
Economist Thomas Sowell once wrote: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” As event professionals, there is no perfect answer to the environmental damage inflicted by events, but there are mitigating actions we can all take towards a zero waste, net zero outcome.
Zero waste is defined as “the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning, and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.” (Zero Waste Alliance, internationally accepted definition)
Net zero, according to the United Nations, means “cutting carbon emissions to a small amount of residual emissions that can be absorbed and durably stored by nature and other carbon dioxide removal measures, leaving zero in the atmosphere.”
In order for our events to achieve these conservation standards, we need to address how we prepare for the event on the front end with upstream solutions, and how we manage the waste on the back end with downstream solutions.
While every event poses unique challenges, and involves juggling many details to make it go smoothly, there are creative and newfound ways to reduce waste before it’s even been generated. These preventative strategies include eliminating plastics, managing food supply, maintaining a clean venue, and operational changes that can relieve the burden of downstream consequences.
The importance of working with sustainably-minded vendors and venues; reusing, up-cycling and going digital where it’s feasible; incorporating plant-based, locally sourced cuisine; sourcing sustainable materials and packaging; and finally, using environmentally friendly cleaning solutions are all factors in creating a sustainable event.
Simply the act of choosing the venue is one of the most critical and strategic decisions in terms of lowering your event footprint. Choosing a venue with on-site or nearby accommodations reduces travel, which, as previously discussed, is the major contributor to carbon emissions, but there are a number of other considerations to take into account when booking your location:
While many people fly to events and drive internal combustion engine cars, the aggregate of these individual elements can take a significant dent out of your carbon production.
Another option that really decreases transportation and transportation related emissions? Going virtual or offering a hybrid option. Certainly one of the biggest enticements about events is the face-to-face opportunities and joy of human gathering, but sometimes, for some types of meetings and occasions, virtual works well too.
Upcycling, the practice of reusing or repurposing discarded items to create new products, is a great way to take old production builds and use parts of them for new sets. If you have backdrops, carpets, bars, seats, couches, or other pieces, they can be stored and repainted or refashioned for future use. According to the Carpet America Recovery Effort, five billion pounds of carpet are sent to landfills annually. Their website allows you to find carpet reclamation partners in your area and offers ways to divert used carpets from going into landfills.
If your event occurs annually or multiple times in a year, reusing signage, carpeting, table covers, tents, production builds, flags, and other decor is the number one way to save money and prevent waste. Some organizations have gotten creative with how to reuse items we generally think of an immediately disposable. Reusing may even be a simple as collecting badges and lanyards after one event and using them again at the next one. The Lanyard Library is a nonprofit that collects used lanyards and then rents them out again as a way to prevent them from entering landfills.
A brilliant example of reuse involves the Austin Convention Center which has reusable water bottle vending machines, also known as reverse vending machines for bottle and can recycling. The water is locally bottled. Event attendees can take the water bottles out of the vending cooler, and once done, rack the used water bottle in a separate crate which easily slides into a commercial dishwasher to be sanitized and cleaned. Given that water bottles account for nearly 17 million barrels of oil annually (the equivalent to powering one million cars each year) and that it takes 22 gallons of water to produce one pound of plastic which means it takes three liters of water to make a one liter bottle of water, these kinds of innovations save in obvious ways (landfill space and plastic creation) and hidden ways (water and oil usage) that have major impact.
Aside from plastic, paper is ubiquitous at events. Tickets, brochures, maps, signs and posters, as well as other printed materials contribute to the garbage problem. In fact, paper accounts for 12% of the total waste at landfills. Approximately one billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the United States. So reducing paper production and consumption reduces deforestation as well as saves energy. Since the turn of the century, the earth has lost 488 million hectares of tree cover, the implications of which are not positive on multiple fronts.
Trees provide cover for soil, creating dew and moisture that promotes soil viability and growth. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis, which is vital for all human and mammalian life to breathe. Trees intercept rainfall, reduce soil erosion, and provide food and shelter to wildlife. In residential areas, trees enhance property values, beautify communities, and reduce noise pollution by up to 40%.
Paper comes in various forms: newsprint, inkjet paper, photo paper, tissue paper, yardstick, bond paper, tracing paper, coated paper, glossy paper, Bristol board, linen paper, laser paper, handmade paper, toilet paper, paper towels, and so on. Some kinds of paper like cardboard, magazines, newspapers, and paper made from long fibers are recyclable whereas coated and laminated paper are much more difficult to capture and reuse. Coated paper chemicals are not good for the environment, contributing to water pollution and ecosystem disruption.
However, some paper might be recyclable, but not always. Case in point: while a cardboard pizza box is easily recyclable, as soon as it becomes stained with cheese grease, it cannot. Now it’s simply trash. Contamination reduces recyclability, thereby shunting recyclable materials to landfills. If your event absolutely must use paper, insist on “Process Chlorine Free” (PCF) paper. PCF paper does not use chlorine during processing which reduces the production of carcinogenic dioxins that get produced when chlorine combines with lignins, the cellular glue in wood. Also, buy products with the least amount of paper and plastic packaging. And, of course, recycle the paper you do use in separate bins to avoid contamination.
The simplest way to reduce paper waste is to take your event digital. Creating an app for your event, especially if it’s an annual affair, with all the pertinent information, maps, exhibitor lists, workshop schedules, timetables, etcetera is an excellent way to easily convey information without creating waste. Scannable QR codes that send guests to websites are also highly useful as long as the venue has free and accessible wifi.
Given the extensive issues created by event food waste, partnering with caterers who take sustainability issues seriously and employ either old fashioned or innovative means to limit excess waste is the number one way to reduce waste on the back end. Online calculators like Save the Food and software like Planning Pod offer the ability to track quantities and portions in addition to helping with budgeting and billing.
It’s not just the amount of food prepared at your event, it’s the choice of menu you offer the attendees as well. Limiting animal agriculture can have significant positive impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer areas needed for animal grazing means less deforestation .Trees, along with phytoplankton, are part of the lungs of the earth due to their oxygen-producing capabilities.
Toxic runoff from slaughterhouses coupled with methane gas produced by the livestock industry contributes to the carbon problem. Runoff poisons the land, and methane gas creates air pollution. Lastly, nitrogen-based fertilizer production, which is critical for agriculture as a whole because putting nitrogen in the soil promotes plant growth and prevents famines, creates carbon as a byproduct. Growing feed for livestock requires massive amounts of fertilizer, thus increasing carbon output even more.
The solution?
Plant-based, locally sourced, seasonal menus.
Not only is incorporating plant-based foods healthier, but you are also reducing transportation gas and energy costs by locally sourcing your ingredients. The positives of locally sourced fruits and vegetables means, fresher, more vibrant dishes with rich flavor and high nutrient content.
And no, serving plant-based doesn’t mean reducing your guests to a menu of barley and mung beans. The cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes available to you offers many distinctive and delicious combinations. Michelin star chefs like Alice Waters, Thomas Keller and Daniel Humm are now opening all vegan or mostly plant-based restaurants. Chef Leslie Durso has created an extensive plant-based menu at the Four Season’s Punta Mita resort in Mexico. Charity Morgan has converted many NFL players and hard core barbecue fanatics to her plant-based comfort foods and now has a television show Unbelievably Vegan on Max. A new top selling plant-based cookbook comes out each year.
Farmers markets carry amazing fresh produce so chefs don’t have to sacrifice taste. Even if you don’t serve a fully vegan menu, incorporating plant-based options is de rigeur nowadays given the number of people switching to healthier diets and the greater awareness of the impact we can have with our plate. The City of West Hollywood has even passed a policy requiring food and refreshments at city-sponsored events and meetings be plant-based by default with animal products only available upon request.
Caterers are taking the lead in making this shift, by sourcing both seasonally and locally. In fact, some caterers are getting extra local by producing their own ingredients. An article from Catersource notes that “from foraging for wild edibles to establishing farms and beekeeping operations, these enterprising professionals are redefining the concept of farm-to-table cuisine. Hyperlocal ingredient sourcing is the next step many caterers are taking in the ongoing sustainability journey.” (Special Events April 9 2024)
One of the best ways to make your events Instagrammable and memorable is with stunning art direction and decor. Here is some insight on alternative options and simple ways to reduce waste by choosing more sustainable materials that can ultimately be reused, repurposed, composted, or recycled.
In general, so much of what we purchase is on the one way train from being made in a plant to being planted in the ground to rot and degrade over thousands of years or to contributing to the enormous amount of garbage floating around in our ecosphere. Our only way out of this is to buy products that can truly be recycled or reclaimed. We need to wrench ourselves from our linear consumerism and reorient ourselves into a circular economy.
With increased scrutiny over brands and more consumer awareness and information, younger generations want to read where things are made, what’s in them, and what the consequences of consuming them will be. This has fueled more interest in research and development of alternatives to the single use plastic phenomenon that has been ravaging our environment.
To that end, what materials are truly sustainable? How can we buy with better stewardship of Mother Earth in mind?
Generally speaking, animal and petroleum-generated products like plastics, foam, synthetic rubber, gasoline, leather, and meat are responsible for the largest percentage carbon emissions which are heating the earth. As mentioned earlier, petroleum products, which are made from fossil fuels, take years to breakdown, and many have hormone-mimicking substances called xenoestrogens which are linked to cancer. Concrete is another horror show for the environment, responsible for about 8% of our annual CO2 footprint.
Although bioplastics—polymers produced from carbohydrates, vegetable fats and oils, wood chips and sawdust, corn starch, sugar, polysaccharides and food waste in the presence of microorganisms—are generally more eco-friendly and biodegrade more easily than conventional, petroleum-based plastics, they are still toxic to marine life and take hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill.
So as you’re considering the food wares, products, sets and production builds for your event, here’s a guide to which materials are best for Mother Earth:
Cork. Cork forests capture 73 tons of carbon annually. Cork is harvested from the bark of a tree without actually destroying the tree and is a renewable and regenerative resource. It also can be composted.
Wool. Wool is both ecologically and non-ecologically friendly. Sheep manure contributes to methane gas production and forests are cleared away to create pastures for sheep grazing, but harvesting wool does not kill the animals and wool is easily compostable, unlike synthetic fibers which merely contribute to landfills and take much longer to break down.
Natural Latex. Made from the sap of a rubber tree, natural latex can be harvested from trees by excising the sap from the bark without killing the trees. These trees also help with carbon capture and maintaining atmospheric balance.
Bamboo. Bamboo plants reduce 35% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and return a significant amount of oxygen. Bamboo also prevents soil erosion and can be used as a barrier for crops to prevent water runoff. As it is a natural material, it decomposes quickly. The only exception to this is if bamboo is chemically processed to remove its fibers. These chemicals are toxic to living creatures and people, which makes it important to seek out non-chemically processed options.
Natural Stone. Considered “the oldest sustainable material,” stone is natural, needs minimal processing, and is incredibly durable, therefore prolonging the obsolescence of whatever is made with it. Regional stone quarries are better options so as to prevent carbon emissions from transportation.
Glass. One hundred percent recyclable with zero end waste in the process, glass is one of the most sustainable materials. It is completely non-toxic, and does minimal damage to the environment. It doesn’t leach chemicals nor does it poison or harm flora or fauna (unless they cut themselves on broken shards of it). Glass takes an enormous amount of time to break down, literally up to one million years in some cases which means that, when not recycled and put in landfills, glass will sit there for a very long time. It’s important to note that glass is made from sand that comes from sea and riverbeds as well as limestone and other recycled glass. We use more sand than is being regenerated, so it’s important to not only recycle your glass when it breaks or when you are done with it, but also to avoid single-use materials in general.
Hemp. Hemp is revered for its carbon sequestration abilities and its role in forest conservation as it produces more pulp per acre than trees and doesn’t require pesticides to grow. While hemp cultivation does require water and can create soil erosion, it also requires less energy to grow.
Once caterers prepare the food, they have to serve it. Most food wares are made of coated wax paper and various kinds of plastic. Discardable single use items are one of the easiest to reduce on a smaller scale, but take more effort and ingenuity to minimize for large scale events.
Some venues and producers encourage a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) policy with refill stations for water, tea, soda, and coffee. Others have swapped out plastic for biodegradable and compostable materials.
Biodegradable products are those that can be broken down by bacteria and other organisms into water, carbon dioxide and biomass over an undefined time period. However, that doesn’t automatically indicate that the product is sustainable or non-toxic. Plenty of biodegradable products release methane and other chemicals into the environment. Biodegradation by definition leaves behind residues. For instance, a paper coffee cup lined with plastic will break down at some point, but it will still create microplastic waste.
For a product to be biodegradable and nontoxic, many composting landfills require BPI certification. BPI World, the Biodegradable Products Institute, provides certification for truly compostable packaging and resources for manufacturers including labs approved for product testing, updates on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards, labelling requirements, and an online product database. Products with BPI certification are marked with the end-of-life span, are designed to be able to break down with food scraps and yard trimmings without negatively impacting compost quality, and are restricted from containing carcinogens and fluorinated chemicals (PFAs). North America, Europe and Japan insist on BPI’s certification standards to label something truly biodegradable.
Compostable products, by contrast, are materials that break down into water, carbon dioxide, and biomass within a specific period of time and leave no residue after 90-180 days in a compost facility. Most compostable materials are bio-based and, as a result, do NOT leave behind any microplastics or contaminate the environment.
As sustainability becomes more than just a buzzword and turns into a market demand, more companies are rising to the occasion and offering alternatives to discardable plastic, creating affordable options for event planners who want their productions to be eco-friendly. Here is a sampling of vendors with essential consumables for events.
Green Paper Products offers an extensive catalogue of cups, trays, napkins, hot and cold food containers, clamshells, cutlery, gloves, paper towels, toilet paper and more. ASTM-compliant, all of the company’s products are either compostable or recyclable, with ingredients ranging from PLA to sugarcane bagasse, wheat straw fiber, bamboo, recycled paper, tPLA & CPLA, cellulose and RPET/Recycled PET.
Good Start Packaging offers various collections: some which are BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute), CMA (Compost Manufacturing Alliance), and TUV (Germany’s Technical Inspection Certification) Certified, others are simply PFA-free, and others which are compostable and Made in the USA. You can also shop by brand, and they offer many of the top ones including Packnwood, UrthPact, Vegware, Greenware, EcoSafe, Good Natured Products, Stalk Market, and their own private label
The Sustainable Agave Company creates 100% compostable cutlery, straws, and cups out of tequila-production agave waste which can all be ordered in bulk for your events. Not only will you be diverting agave waste from landfills, but also reducing plastic production and waste. They also create sustainable food packaging including Kraft Boats, compostable bags, and food containers made from sugar cane.
Bamboo is also a popular choice, with The Webstaurant Store offering ECO Sky Blue Handle Birchwood Cutlery, Bambu creating compostable plates and dinnerware, and Woodable providing disposable, compostable boxes of knives, forks, and spoons.
Who Gives A Crap? is a US-based company that produces toilet paper, Kleenex, and paper towels made from recycled paper or bamboo. They have a sister company, Good Time, that makes zero waste shampoo and conditioning bars as well as soaps for cleansing and exfoliation. Cloud Paper, The Good Roll, and Seek Bamboo, and Amazon Aware also offer both recycled and sustainable toilet paper among other zero-waste bulk items.
If you are putting on a smaller, more intimate event, check out the TOMbag. A reusable garbage bag? Yes. For compost or recycling that can be emptied into a bin and doesn’t need to be bagged in the bin, the TOMbag is perfect for rinsing out and reusing.
Whereas most compostable bags tend to be flimsy and rip easily, SUPERBIO makes extra thick 33 gallon compostable bags which the company claims will degrade to humus, CO2 and water within 180 days when placed in a standard compost pile. Green Paper Products, mentioned above, has a wide range of compostable trash bags from 2.5 gallon all the way up to 90 gallons (90 gallons! who could carry that?!).
And of course, Amazon carries many of these brands and their own versions of these products online. If you are looking for more sustainable products for your event or in your day to day life, web searches using the words “zero waste” before the item you are looking for is the best way to find them.
If you really want a zero waste event, there’s the ultimate in zero waste technology, which is actually an old concept, and that is serving meals in edible packaging.
What do we mean by edible packaging? Eat a plastic wrapper? Um, no. Replace that plastic wrap with a biomaterial like seaweed? Well…that could be interesting. If you think about it, edible packaging has already been a thing for quite a long time. If you’ve eaten an ice cream cone, nibbled on sausage (which is encased in collagen and cellulose), or swallowed a pill (shelled in gelatin or it’s vegan-friendly alternative cellulose), then you’ve encountered edible packaging. In parts of Asia, rural folk have been using plates and bowls made of banana leaves that can then be converted into cattle feed.
Again, it’s an old concept, but now, with sustainability issues ever more pressing, upstart, progressive companies are creating newer applications.
To be considered edible, packaging must comply with federal health standards, provide nutritional value, and, by definition, be biodegradable. Most edible packaging is plant based, derived from natural polymers in seaweed, rice, potato peels, and sugarcane. Some newer applications use casein (a milk product), and of course, gelatin is derived from collagen from animal hooves. Ideally, packaging should be made from both proteins and carbohydrates to ensure its durability.
Some examples of novel uses of edible packaging include:
Seaweed has become an incredibly popular and common choice for edible packaging since it only takes six weeks to cultivate and degrades quite quickly if not consumed. It dissolves in warm water, making it ideal for sachets and sporting gels. On the carbohydrate front, polysaccharides such as tapioca, carrageen, chitosan, starches from potatoes, sorghum, and wheat are often employed to give the fibrous structure whereas protein options like whey protein isolate, corn zein, egg whites, and collagen often provide the much needed “glue.”
While the market size for edible packaging was measured at somewhere between $963 million to $1.1 billion in 2023, there have been challenges in scaling production to the level where this becomes the norm instead of the outlier in the industry. In addition to limited production facilities, making it difficult to supply the demand, there is also the issue of how to protect edible packaging from contamination when being stored or transported. Using plastic packaging to protect edible packaging is oxymoronic and self-defeating, but the shining benefit of plastic is that it helps extend shelf life, blocks germs and contaminants, and can be made sterile.
Edible packaging is also very sensitive to temperature and heat, making it costly to ship (not to mention the carbon footprint of the refrigeration needed to transport it), and somewhat impractical for shipping long distances. Humidity particularly can accelerate biodegradation.
That said, edible packaging is another tool in increasing sustainability, and the potential for its implementation in food service, is both exciting and revolutionary. Here is a list of some of the companies leading the way:
Evoware
Materials: cassava, rice, seaweed, sugarcane, bamboo, birchwood, Areca palm
Products: bags, mailers, sachets, wrapping, straws, cups, food containers, cutlery
Good Start Packaging:
Materials: plant fiber, bamboo, corn
Products: to go boxes, clamshells, straws, cold cups, coffee cups, juice bottles, bags, deli containers, bowls, utensils, napkins, custom printing
Notpla
Materials: seaweed
Products: food containers, rigid cutlery, energy gel pods, paper, food oil pipette, laundry sachet, bath oil sachet, dry food sachet
Sorbos
Materials: sugar, water, bovine gelatin, sodium, carboxymethylcellulose, glycerine, flavoring, antioxidant, citric acid, humectant, stabilizer
Products: straws
Edible Coffee Cups
Materials: oat fibers, cocoa husk fibers, durum wheat semolina pasta, whole wheat grain flower,
Products: waffle cups, biscuit cups, spoons, straws, biscuit spoons
Incredible Eats
Materials: wheat flour, brown rice, corn flour, chickpea flour, oat flour, cane sugar, guar gum, flavoring, pectin, malodextrin, gluten, sugar, sunflower oil, Sucralose
Products: spoons, straws, food wares, bags
Edible packaging is an odd niche, but also fun and constructive way to tackle food ware waste head on. It’s also a way to engage the consumer in your branding activation or sporting event to make it novel, eco-friendly, and thought-provoking. Not only will it reduce your event footprint but it will also make it memorable.
Greenwashing is a term coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld which refers to the practice of marketing products in a way that makes them seem more sustainable and environmentally friendly than they actually are. Unfortunately, as consumers become more and more interested in making more ethical choices, many corporations want to seem like they are course-correcting to lowering pollutants and carbon emissions without actually doing what needs to be done.
One of the most prominent instances of greenwashing occurs in labelling, particularly when companies advertise their products as “all-natural,” which essentially means nothing. “USDA Certified Organic” is a specific label that requires certification based on implementing rigorous practices and conservation methods. According to the USDA site: Organic products must be produced using agricultural production practices that foster resource cycling, promote ecological balance, maintain and improve soil and water quality, minimize the use of synthetic materials, be produced without genetic engineering, ionizing radiation sludge, or sewage sludge among other prohibited methods, and conserve biodiversity. “All natural” has zero meaning. Anyone can use it. And of course, just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Arsenic is “all natural.” So is hemlock. As are oleanders. And mercury. You don’t want to ingest any of those.
So how do you know if a company is greenwashing? There are a number of methods used as subterfuge to steer customers the wrong way.
Performative actions.
A local gas company once launched a campaign about how they were creating habitats to preserve the El Segundo Blue Butterfly. Meanwhile, the entire neighborhood next to their plant sat on a reserve of hydrofluorocarbons that were seeping into the groundwater and, if ignited, could explode.
Selectively disclosing what they do as opposed to what they don’t do.
This is inevitably true with the use of plastic, even bio-plastics. 90% of the plastics made in the world do not get recycled. In fact, most of it winds up in the ocean where, by 2050, scientists reckon there will be more plastic than fish and wildlife. Calling a product “recyclable” isn’t the same thing as it actually being able to be recycled. And bioplastics need both oxygen and sunlight to decompose, which is not actually available in landfills.
Planned obsolescence.
Some tech companies talk about their recycling programs and how they have cut down on e-waste and packaging. Yes, digital media has decreased the environmental cost of production of CDs, DVDs, and books and the plastic waste and deforestation that comes along with it. However, all tech devices are made with the intention of lasting only a few years and the lithium batteries needed to power some of them are mined by slaves in Africa. Mining is also one of the worst industries in terms of leaving a carbon footprint. In fact, older computers and devices often are found to last longer than newer ones. Whereas a laptop lasted almost ten years twenty years ago, today they are more inclined to break down after five to seven. Electric cars, while better in terms of fuel emissions, often need to be traded in after ten to twelve years after the battery degrades and are harder to fix than older automobiles because they have many more electronic components.
In the cleaning business, there are many products that declare themselves to be environmentally sound but, on a more studied glance, are actually not. Without a degree in chemistry, how do you actually know?
Evoware
Materials: cassava, rice, seaweed, sugarcane, bamboo, birchwood, Areca palm
Products: bags, mailers, sachets, wrapping, straws, cups, food containers, cutlery
Good Start Packaging:
Materials: plant fiber, bamboo, corn
Products: to go boxes, clamshells, straws, cold cups, coffee cups, juice bottles, bags, deli containers, bowls, utensils, napkins, custom printing
Notpla
Materials: seaweed
Products: food containers, rigid cutlery, energy gel pods, paper, food oil pipette, laundry sachet, bath oil sachet, dry food sachet
Sorbos
Materials: sugar, water, bovine gelatin, sodium, carboxymethylcellulose, glycerine, flavoring, antioxidant, citric acid, humectant, stabilizer
Products: straws
Edible Coffee Cups
Materials: oat fibers, cocoa husk fibers, durum wheat semolina pasta, whole wheat grain flower,
Products: waffle cups, biscuit cups, spoons, straws, biscuit spoons
Incredible Eats
Materials: wheat flour, brown rice, corn flour, chickpea flour, oat flour, cane sugar, guar gum, flavoring, pectin, malodextrin, gluten, sugar, sunflower oil, Sucralose
Products: spoons, straws, food wares, bags
Edible packaging is an odd niche, but also fun and constructive way to tackle food ware waste head on. It’s also a way to engage the consumer in your branding activation or sporting event to make it novel, eco-friendly, and thought-provoking. Not only will it reduce your event footprint but it will also make it memorable.
GREENWASHING
Greenwashing is a term coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld which refers to the practice of marketing products in a way that makes them seem more sustainable and environmentally friendly than they actually are. Unfortunately, as consumers become more and more interested in making more ethical choices, many corporations want to seem like they are course-correcting to lowering pollutants and carbon emissions without actually doing what needs to be done.
One of the most prominent instances of greenwashing occurs in labelling, particularly when companies advertise their products as “all-natural,” which essentially means nothing. “USDA Certified Organic” is a specific label that requires certification based on implementing rigorous practices and conservation methods. According to the USDA site: Organic products must be produced using agricultural production practices that foster resource cycling, promote ecological balance, maintain and improve soil and water quality, minimize the use of synthetic materials, be produced without genetic engineering, ionizing radiation sludge, or sewage sludge among other prohibited methods, and conserve biodiversity. “All natural” has zero meaning. Anyone can use it. And of course, just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Arsenic is “all natural.” So is hemlock. As are oleanders. And mercury. You don’t want to ingest any of those.
So how do you know if a company is greenwashing? There are a number of methods used as subterfuge to steer customers the wrong way.
Performative actions.
A local gas company once launched a campaign about how they were creating habitats to preserve the El Segundo Blue Butterfly. Meanwhile, the entire neighborhood next to their plant sat on a reserve of hydrofluorocarbons that were seeping into the groundwater and, if ignited, could explode.
Selectively disclosing what they do as opposed to what they don’t do.
This is inevitably true with the use of plastic, even bio-plastics. 90% of the plastics made in the world do not get recycled. In fact, most of it winds up in the ocean where, by 2050, scientists reckon there will be more plastic than fish and wildlife. Calling a product “recyclable” isn’t the same thing as it actually being able to be recycled. And bioplastics need both oxygen and sunlight to decompose, which is not actually available in landfills.
Planned obsolescence.
Some tech companies talk about their recycling programs and how they have cut down on e-waste and packaging. Yes, digital media has decreased the environmental cost of production of CDs, DVDs, and books and the plastic waste and deforestation that comes along with it. However, all tech devices are made with the intention of lasting only a few years and the lithium batteries needed to power some of them are mined by slaves in Africa. Mining is also one of the worst industries in terms of leaving a carbon footprint. In fact, older computers and devices often are found to last longer than newer ones. Whereas a laptop lasted almost ten years twenty years ago, today they are more inclined to break down after five to seven. Electric cars, while better in terms of fuel emissions, often need to be traded in after ten to twelve years after the battery degrades and are harder to fix than older automobiles because they have many more electronic components.
In the cleaning business, there are many products that declare themselves to be environmentally sound but, on a more studied glance, are actually not. Without a degree in chemistry, how do you actually know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY CLEANING SOLUTIONS
If you want to put on a sparkling and streamlined event, then live event trash management, restroom maintenance, and overall venue upkeep are essential, not optional.
Cleaning is one of the most integral components to creating a sustainable event. Imagine you went to the county fair and there was no one to pick up the trash. Or you went to a stadium and the venue just let the toilet paper run out? Without live event porters, trash cans would overflow, plastic bags and cups would roll like tumbleweeds throughout the event space, restrooms would deteriorate into muck. Attendees would be repulsed.
Equally important are the supplies and solutions used to keep the event space clean and safe. Many cleaning supplies are toxic (like TSP and borax) or have noxious fumes (bleach).
The Environmental Working Group is an organization provides online resource guides for consumers in the areas of personal care products, cosmetics, cleaning agents, and your local tap water pollutants. Their areas of focus also include farming and agriculture, the food system, and family health. Their downloadable phone app allows anyone to check out how environmentally friendly products are while shopping for them.
Two of the best cleaning agents that pose the least amount of threat in terms of human and environmental safety are white vinegar and baking soda. Both baking soda and vinegar are known for their versatility and utility. And we know they are not only sustainable but nontoxic because you can consume them as well.
Baking soda, chemically known as Sodium bicarbonate, is a crystalline natural salt that appears as a fine powder. It is alkaline, soluble in water, and decomposes when heated. Often used in baking recipes as a leavening agent in combination with an acid and a liquid, baking soda helps make your cakes, cookies, and pancakes fluffy instead of flat.
That said, overuse and mass consumption of baking soda can lead to potassium or chloride blood deficiencies, hypochloremia, hypernatremia, and symptoms like gas, nausea, diarrhea, and stomach pain.
Vinegar, on the other hand, is an acidic aqueous solution made of acetic acid and small compounds that may contain flavorings. It’s a fermented product made from sugars such as vodka, wine, cider, or beer and bacteria.
Vinegar, mixed with oil, makes a fine vinaigrette, and can be used in balsamic reduction sauces to glaze vegetables as well as an acid agent in baking pies and desserts, but like baking soda, too much is not a good thing. Vinegar can trigger nausea and acid reflux, erode tooth enable, and inflame intestines if you try to become intoxicated by it.
When baking soda and vinegar are mixed together, however—magic! They neutralize each other in a bubbling, fizzing, reaction that foams up with carbon dioxide gas and ultimately leaves behind salty water. This reaction helps loosen and dissolve stains and gunk. Baking soda’s alkaline properties help dirt and grease dissolve in water while vinegar’s acidic nature loosens mineral deposits like lime and rust and dissolves soap scum. Vinegar is also a powerful disinfectant because it also kills microorganisms.
Microfiber towels are highly effective at pulling up hair, dust, and particles before employing water and cleaning solutions to wipe down surfaces, but be forewarned, they are made of plastic. Other textiles made from plastic include polyester, acrylic, spandex, rayon and nylon. These fibers shed microplastic particles into waterways when washed unless put in Guppyfriend washing bags.
By contrast, cotton towels with a large open weave can swipe up debris and are preferable in terms of their ecological impact. Facesoft and Reusable Paper Towels, made from 100% cotton, and Sponge Cloths, made from cellulose, are great alternatives.
There’s more to cleaning up an event than taking out the trash. Along with picking up litter, you’ll need to break down signage, move furniture, clean bathrooms, and leave your venue how you found it. Hiring a professional cleaning company can also help you further your sustainability efforts by having a crew to recycle items, compost food waste, and implement other landfill diversion strategies.
THE BACKEND/DOWNSTREAM SOLUTIONS
The more sustainability strategies are employed during the planning and execution of the event, the less waste will be produced to deal with on the backend. Backend solutions involve how waste is handled once it is produced and how to minimize the impact that waste will have on the environment.
Landfill diversion tactics through recycling, compost, food recovery and donation, liquid disposal, and oil recycling are the primary downstream solutions for improving your event footprint. Lastly, having event cleanup staff on site to manage waste as it is being generated and afterwards to ensure site preservation round off our list of sustainable event strategies.
RECYCLING – IS IT REALLY A THING?
Some privately owned dumpster rental and trash hauling companies will tell you that recycling isn’t actually a thing. They insist they have been to landfills and there’s no recycling. This is only partly true. It’s often true there’s no access to recycling or compost or sustainable waste management for them.
The reality is that franchise haulers and massive corporations are the only ones who have the infrastructure for compost and single stream recycling systems. These companies include behemoths like Republic and Waste Management. The franchise haulers earn big government contracts; they provide union, decent paying jobs (primarily for drivers under the International Brotherhood of Teamsters), and then they also take that money to invest in electric trucks—one truck can cost around $480,000—single stream sorting technology (more on that shortly), and special bins and machinery so that they can comply with laws and monetize garbage.
While every state is different—California unsurprisingly has some of the most stringent sustainability laws in place for instance—on a national scale, because many of the materials that wind up in landfills are valuable in the manufacturing sector, all the major waste management corporations are highly incentivized to invest in high tech sorting mechanisms in order to capture these materials. Those include all kinds of metal including aluminum and tin, residential papers and news, cardboard, bulky rigid, glass, and certain kinds of plastic.
What is single stream recycling? It’s a much more efficient manner of separation than having multiple streams. Instead of pre-sorting garbage into different bins, which not many residences, businesses, or events could manage the space, logistics, or compliance for each of recoverable material, all the garbage and recycling is funneled through one system. In this sorting machinery, spinning rubber disks separate out cardboard and paper, magnets pull out metals, optical sensors filter out plastic, and artificial intelligence robots differentiate among plastic types and pull them into designated bins.
The downside of the fact that only the bigger companies can handle recycling and trash separation is that, because they have to spend so much money on the necessary technology and facilities, their services are also slower and cost more. In California, where laws AB 2176 and SB 54 mandate materials recycling and ban single use plastic waste in favor of compostable or recyclable packaging respectively, the cost of landfill diversion must be incorporated into the event budget. Many cities, including Santa Monica, Malibu, San Francisco, and Sacramento, require that event producers register landfill diversion plans with the cities where they are hosting the event.
Setting expectations and advertising your sustainability intentions upfront goes a long way towards making those efforts successful. Attendees need to know about your sustainability efforts so they can be conscious of their own use of resources. If you have compost or recycling bins, signage will let them know what they can place in each bin. Volunteers and staff should also be trained on your sustainable event priorities so they can direct guests and assist with cleanup efforts.
If your event is in California, CalRecycle’s website advertises who the franchise haulers are for your event location and lists what can and cannot be recycled. If your event is in other states, look to the major haulers to provide dumpsters and roll-offs to accomplish your sustainability goals.
FOOD RECOVERY
Recycling is the only path to capture and reuse inorganic materials, but food, which is number one on our Event Dirty Dozen list, can be recovered or composted (more on that later). Food recovery includes donating uneaten food to regional food banks and charitable organizations like White Pony, the Salvation Army, Mend Poverty, and neighborhood churches.
California law SB 1383 mandates food recovery for all events over 2000 people as of January 2024. In tandem with that, AB 1219, the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, provides liability protections to people and organizations who make good faith donations of surplus food. This liability protection extends to past-expiration-date food but does not include people who are found to have committed gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
While food that has been served to consumers cannot be donated, excess meals that remained in back of house are eligible. Any food not eligible for food donation can be repurposed in several ways. First, excess food can be ground into animal feed, helping reduce feed costs for farmers while lowering methane emissions. To donate food for animal feed, contact your local county agricultural extension office (USDA) for information. You can also connect with local farmers or ranchers in your area if your municipality is more rural.
Food scraps can also generate energy via anaerobic digestion. Microorganisms break down food, yard waste, and manure to produce biogas and a soil amendment which can generate methane that is converted for energy, as discussed earlier. To donate food for energy generation requires partnering with your local waste hauler (like Waste Management) or utility district.
Food recovery software like Careit simplifies the process of donating food and goods directly to local nonprofits. Used by Sizzler, Smart & Final, the Rose Bowl and AMC Theaters among other restaurants, grocers and other food producers, Careit is a food donation marketplace that matches food donors with local organizations that feed people in need. The app recently introduced an animal food rescue program as well. Not only does the marketplace allow organizations in need of food to rescue food in real time, but it also prevents the practice of “donation dumping” which taxes understaffed nonprofits and winds up not being used due to spoilage and inability to identify the source.
Americans waste over 40% of our agricultural production which amounts to $218 billion worth of food. Food recovery solves two issues at once: it alleviates food insecurity and reduces methane gas production through landfill diversion.
COMPOST
The other option for food that cannot be recovered is to dispose of it in organics bins and send it to be composted. Composting food incorporates oxygen which prevents the production of methane, improves soil by adding nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, iron, and zinc, improves the soil’s structure and ability to retain water by adding smaller particles to prevent soil from clumping into clay, and fertilizes plants by releasing nutrients to help them grow. Compost feeds earthworms and other microbes that churn soil and oxygenate the soil to feed plants. It prevents soil erosion, increases resilience to both floods and droughts, and helps with carbon sequestration.
According to Compost Magazine, “one research project found that 1/2 inch of compost applied to rangeland sequestered the equivalent of one metric ton of CO2 per hectare over three years.” In other words, applying compost to open country dirt means more carbon gets absorbed by the dirt and stays in the ground.
Part of the way that compost protects plants from temperature and moisture level changes is by encouraging the growth of mycorrhizal fungi which create an interconnected relationship to plant roots, protecting them from soil pathogens and increasing mineral uptake. Compost also stabilizes the pH level of the soil by encouraging earthworms to aerate the soil, making it less acidic.
Now required by law in California, all residential and commercial communities are required to compost organic waste. From the CalRecycle Website: “Organic waste” includes food, green material, landscape and pruning waste, organic textiles and carpets, lumber, wood, paper products, printing and writing paper, manure, biosolids, digestate, and sludges. California’s law aims to reduce organic waste dumped in landfills by 75% by 2025.
Since landfills are the third largest source of methane gas in California, and organic items like food scraps, yard trimmings, and paper and cardboard products constitute half of what is dumped in landfills, reducing this organic waste by diverting it to composting facilities will have the fastest impact on reducing carbon emissions.
Composting also creates jobs which are important for each stage in the recovery. There are skilled equipment operators for turners, loaders, grinders, and screeners—not to mention all the jobs created by delivering, selling, and dispersing compost to parks, farms, and gardens. Composting employs two times the number of workers than landfills and four times more than commercial incinerators.
Because biodegradable and compostable materials only degrade as intended if the light, aeration, and moisture levels are ideal, some of the larger waste management companies have created sophisticated systems which have cut the time needed to compost materials from 6 months down to 60-90 days.
Athens Services, for instance, collects organic waste from green bins and dumpsters and takes it by transfer trucks to compost facilities where it is weighted with underground scales before being unloaded onto a tipping floor. Workers remove contamination on this floor and operators load the material onto a conveyor belt where auger screens sort the material into 3-inch pieces or smaller. Workers on the line remove plastic, palm fronds, textiles, garbage, and cacti which cannot be composted and funnel the remaining larger green waste into a grinder.
The remaining organic waste which is either 3 inches or has been ground down becomes added to a stockpile which goes through a process called CASP (Covered Aerated Static Pile) where ventilation fans aerate and dry out the pile and heat it up to 131°F to eliminate pathogens. Machines mix the materials which are placed in piles to be cured and then packaged for use.
While California is leading the way with over two hundred operating full-scale food waste composting facilities along with six other states (New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, Texas, and North Carolina), there are ten states which have zero organics recycling infrastructure at all (Alabama, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia).
Composting is a major component of landfill diversion and supports market growth as well.
OIL RECYCLING
Unlike other organic products, oil cannot be composted, ruins recyclable materials, and soils the environment. Olive oil, canola oil, walnut oil, grape seed oil, sesame seed oil, you name it. All kinds of oil can create all kinds of trouble and properly recycled oil prevents environmental contamination as well as unexpected costs for repairing infrastructure.
It’s also an important landfill diversion strategy as the event industry inches its way towards zero waste.
The process for recycling oil involves the following steps:
Oil recycling has many benefits. This nascent industry has created jobs in the fields of engineering, technology and transportation. In fact, restaurant oil recycling companies generated upwards of $1.64 billion in 2023. The main products created by recycling, biodiesel and renewable diesel, which produce 74% fewer carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum-based fuels, minimize pollution.
Use of plant based fuels reduces American reliance on foreign oil production from countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia, keeping the economic benefits in country. And recycling oil also provides base level ingredients for many other products including cosmetics, soaps, shampoos and moisturizers, paints, detergents, furniture polish, and animal feed.
(Just a helpful warning: while motor oil can also be recycled, don’t mix it with cooking oil since they require separate processes to recycle. Also, never pour cooking oil or used cooking oil directly into your gas tank. This could ruin your car!)
Most importantly for event cleaning, oil removal helps keep your kitchen or food truck clean!
LIVE & POST-EVENT CLEANING
Keeping your event footprint clean is one of the simplest and most obvious downstream strategies for site preservation. While smaller events might be fine with a simple post-event cleanup crew, large scale events regardless of whether they are indoor or outdoor mandate live event porters including restroom attendants and trash management.
Trash Management
One of the simplest and most obvious preventative strategies to stop garbage from tumbling into storm drains and winding up in waterbodies and our oceans is capturing and picking up garbage during and immediately post event. On site cleaning crews can change out trash liners before they overflow and become full, pick trash up off the ground and separate trash on site to make sure that the correct materials wind up in the right bins.
Renting reusable trash cans instead of using cardboard boxes, proper signage on cans or boxes so that patrons know where to throw away what, and employing golf carts and trash caddies at larger events to keep up with guest waste generation are all ways to reduce waste and facilitate waste management.
Because dumpster rental and trash hauling are, far and above, the most expensive part of many event estimates with the exception of labor, many try to skimp on this which sometimes costs more both in aggravation and expenditure in the end.
How many trash cans and dumpsters will your event require? Here are several important factors to consider:
If your event involves food and beverage, like a food festival, you will undoubtedly be producing a lot of waste, and it will involve refuse, recycling, oil, liquid, and organics. Understanding how to categorize your trash is important and knowing how to break down trash and recycling to maximize dumpster space is also critical and can save money and prevent flyaway garbage.
Dumpster placement can be critical to on site trash management as well. If your venue is exceedingly long or large in layout, you may need multiple locations for dumpsters so that the cleaning crew does not spend most of the time trekking back and forth between the dumpsters and the cans to empty them.
If you have any kind of bar serving alcohol which tends to come in glass bottles, those bottles can be heavy (and rip trash bags if they are too flimsy) and take up a lot of space in dumpsters. Glass is also one of few materials that is redeemable for cash and can be recycled, and in many states, it is mandatory to do so. In situations where lots of liquids are being served, alcoholic or not, renting Pour Away receptacles to divert liquid from dumpsters will save money from excess weight. These liquid receptacles help keep recycled materials from being contaminated as well.
As a general rule, your event will need one of each type of can (trash, recycling, compost) per 30 people, but as the numbers grow bigger, the ratio can sometimes compress depending upon how many people are coming through that area at once. It’s one thing to have 10,000 festival goers at your venue at once versus 10,000 throughout an eight hour period where possibly only 3000 guests will be on the premises at any one time.
As far as dumpsters are concerned, consulting with waste management or event cleaning companies who can provide real world case studies to figure out your cubic yardage needs is always best, and always over estimate as opposed to underestimate your waste management needs.
A general rule of thumb is: there is always more garbage than you think there will be.
Restroom Attendants
Restroom attendants not only ensure presentable and comfortable bathrooms for your guests, but also can be attuned to clogging or malfunctions that might lead to sewage catastrophes. While cleaners are not plumbers, an adept cleaning company will tell you that if you are having an event at a private estate, it’s important to factor in that a toilet configured to handle twenty flushes a day may not be able to handle two hundred flushes an hour.
Having trash bins in or near the restrooms is also critical to prevent guests from discarding hand towels in the toilet which will create a backlog and a major plumbing disaster. Not only is this not a good look for any event, sewage is a human health hazard, and, as discussed previously, raw sewage spills are detrimental to the environment.
General Cleaning
Cleaning brick and mortar venues has a final added benefit that isn’t immediately obvious in terms of green house gas accounting but pays dividends over time: preservation. Regular and deep cleaning, window washing, power washing, carpet cleaning, floor detailing—all help maintain paint jobs, lengthen the life of the floors and windows, prevent mildew and mold growth and dirt buildup and decay. The cost of rebuilding a venue, the construction debris and materials disposal fees, and the loss of use of space can add up to millions, not to mention the environmental cost of mining those materials and transporting them and using machinery and electricity to build.
CONCLUSION
Events are huge economic generators, foster enjoyment, and promote goodwill. From weddings and birthday parties to branding activations and awards galas to outdoor festivals and sporting competitions, human beings find connection, delight, and entertainment through gathering and celebration. No other species finds as much interest in watching other members of their own species perform or compete or honoring each other for who they are or what they’ve done.
But events are significant contributors to climate change and waste production. The top six causes of climate change include: fossil fuel production, deforestation, animal agriculture (particularly livestock production), transportation, overfishing, and plastic production, use and disposal. Events are a microcosm of these problems with requirements that contribute to each sector. But event industry professionals can choose a different route and thankfully for the future of our planet, many (like the NFL, NBA, and MLB) are.
Almost all sporting stadiums now have landfill mitigation programs in effect. Technology has contributed to reducing waste with digital tickets and programs, and apps like Careit have increased the ease and frequency of food donation. On top of that, policies like Build Back Better have aimed to increase infrastructure for carbon capture, recycling, and composting throughout the United States.
Ingenuity and creativity are what make events special and memorable. Ingenuity, creativity and effort are what drives making them sustainable as well.
As the saying goes, we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. So while we are all borrowing, let’s also make sure to give back.
INTRODUCTION
For decades now, top environmentalists including Rachel Carson, Bill McKibben, Jane Goodall and James Hansen have been sounding the alarm that our species is on a collision course with Mother Nature. As of this writing in late 2024, the daily average reading for atmospheric carbon dioxide is 424.60 ppm, far past the 350 ppm deemed by scientists as the safe upper limit.
The continued dumping of over 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year coupled with the 2.01 billion tons of solid waste created annually is doing nothing to stem the tide of self-destruction humankind is inflicting upon its only home.
Confronted by these facts, most of us feel overwhelmed and helpless since the problem seems both abstract and beyond our ability to effect change. However, nothing could be further from the truth, as even small measures magnified over time can have a large impact. As event professionals, there are a myriad of opportunities to reduce the negative effect your event creates on the environment. Festival producers, experiential marketers, concert promoters, and event planners are all highly skilled at identifying little details to make their event stand out. Why not take that skillset to the next level and look for opportunities to reduce, reuse, and recycle?
Statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency show that the average person generates around 4.9 pounds of waste at home daily. While the average rule of thumb for events is one pound of waste per person per meal, the reality is that for larger events, that does not take into consideration production builds, banners, sewage, audio-visual waste and other detritus that are a consequence of the commercial and ephemeral nature of events. At larger events like outdoor music festivals, guests can generate an average of 3.53 lbs of waste per person per day.
Event planners shouldn’t think of incorporating sustainable products and practices as an afterthought, but rather as a critical part of both the planning and execution phases.
What does it mean to be truly sustainable?
Sustainability is defined as “practices that avoid the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain ecological balance.”
Integrating sustainable practices and materials not only can have significant impact on an event’s environmental footprint, but also funds sustainable businesses allowing them to thrive, making their products and services more profitable and as a result, more mainstream as well.
Before we dive into how to make events more sustainable, let’s first evaluate where this event waste is coming from and the consequent issues of these types of waste.
THE PROBLEM(S)
Events have three major waste sources: food, packaging, and transportation. Whether your event has food trucks or catering tents, food and the food wares the food is served in are the biggest physical drivers of waste creation at events. Utensils, cups, lids, cans, bottles, napkins, straws, containers, plastic wrap, not to mention all the packaging the food and food wares were delivered in…all head up the Event Dirty Dozen, a list of the top waste categories.
THE EVENT DIRTY DOZEN
April is one of the most exciting months. Not just because it’s spring which means that flowers are blooming and the sun sets later prolonging the afternoon, but also because that means Major League Baseball is back. As a die-hard Yankees fan, nothing is better than the re-emergence of pinstripes and hearing Michael Kay yell “see ya!’ when number 99 or 27 hits the ball out of the park.
But if you’re passionate about sustainability, it’s hard not to think about the other side of arena sports—the enormous amount of waste generated for just one game. Now multiply that by one hundred sixty-two. There are the cups for drinks, the lids, the straws, the cardboard containers and trays that carry the drinks to your seat, the popcorn tubs, the Cracker Jack boxes, the foil hot dog wrappers, the plastic baseball caps for the ice cream sundaes, the cardboard and plastic and pallets needed to deliver goods to the stadium, the price tags and bags at the fan shop, the paper wrappers, the bottles, the aluminum cans, the broken pieces of stadium furniture or equipment, the food waste, the left behind or discarded items in the seats and bleachers, the receipts, food waste from concessions, spoiled food, discarded uneaten food, leftover cooking oil, sewage from restroom use, audio-visual and electronic waste from the camera crews, television producers, and radio booths, lanyards and name badges for personnel, and, of course, at least 90 to 120 baseballs that are used in the course of the game.
That’s why MLB has actually partnered with Waste Management to increase the circularity of their material use, create landfill diversion strategies, and calculate their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the GHG Protocols.
Branding activations might not have the volume of people as a concert or festival or sporting event, but the installation builds alone can generate several dumpsters worth of construction waste including plastic, foam, wood, nails, paint, carpet, cardboard, electrical wiring and components, drywall, adhesives, and metal in addition to the food and food wares, lanyards, and other staples of event paraphernalia.
FOOD WASTE
Globally, an estimated 1.4 billion tons of food waste is generated annually, about one-fifth of the food produced for human consumption. The average event wastes between 15-20% of the food it produces. This is problematic not just for the environment, but also for its economic impact as well.
Food waste is the largest single category of material placed in landfills according to the Environmental Protection agency. When food waste decomposes under anaerobic (oxygen-deprived) conditions, it creates methane gas, one of the most significant contributors to climate change, a gas almost thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane traps more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 and is considered by scientists to be responsible for about 30% of the rise in global temperatures. Some cities, like Boston, are banning food waste from landfills to mitigate methane emissions.
Cooking oil, which has been in use by cultures for thousands of years to add flavor and reduce burning, presents an entirely separate set of issues from food. Once cooked the resulting byproduct clogs kitchen pipes and backs up sewer lines. Over time, grease coats the pipes and once that build up hardens, those pipes will eventually crack. Oil that leaks into sewer lines makes drainage impossible and can lead to sewer overflow in the streets. In fact, the number one reason for stopped-up sewer pipes is cooking oil that has been incorrectly disposed.
Whether or not events are staged at established venues with on site kitchens or held outside with food trucks, each food vendor generates gallons of cooked grease. If that grease gets dumped into the ground, it can leach into groundwater, poisoning plant and animal life and creating brown spots where greenery can no longer grow. Pouring leftover grease into a sewer drain all but guarantees eventual sewage pipe breakage which then expels feces onto the street and possibly into waterways. This is not only a biohazard but also a source of devastating illnesses like cholera.
THE PROBLEM WITH PLASTIC
Plastic is, bar none, one of the worst culprits in terms of damaging human health and the environment. Invented in 1907, plastic began to be widely used starting in the 1960s right around the time Mr. McGuire told Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate: “I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.” Now it’s so omnipresent, it’s hard to think of how we ever lived without it.
Apparently we are also living in it, because humans now ingest about the equivalent of a credit card of plastic each week. Soon we won’t need Apple Pay. We will just be able to scan ourselves at the register. How is this? Plastic never biodegrades, but simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles, known as microplastics, which then infiltrate humans, animals, the soil, waterways, plants, the ocean, and aquatic life. The resulting landscape has become ecologically unsound.
Microplastics are extremely harmful to human health. They can create oxidative damage and harm DNA, both of which contribute to cancer. Some chemicals in plastics, called xenoestrogens, lead to hormonal issues and metabolic disorders. Petrochemicals that plastics are made from disrupt the endocrine system and cause reproductive issues. Microplastics can embed themselves in plaque, lining arteries, contributing to heart attacks, stroke, and arterial disease.
Since only 9% of all the plastic ever created has been recycled, most plastic gets incinerated, causing environmental pollution which can be toxic to animals and humans. Lung cancer rates are high near burn pits, and plastic waste runoff can leach into air, water, and soil, contaminating our food.
According to CalRecycle, California’s website dedicated to “protecting California’s environment and climate for the health and prosperity of future generations through the reduction, reuse and recycling of California resources, environmental education, disaster recovery and the transition from a disposable to a fully circular economy,”, Californians throw away 290 swimming pools filled with plastic per day. Plastic creates an enormous carbon footprint in its straight-to-landfill lifespan in which materials are excavated, manufactured, shipped and transported, used, disposed, and then incinerated or buried in a landfill.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Speaking of pollution, currently the ocean contains more plastic than biomass. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), swirling with approximately 2 million metric tons of plastic, harbors the largest accumulation of plastic in the world. Located between Hawaii and California, and estimated to be three times the size of France, the GPGP is the largest of five plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans—the others located in the Indian Ocean, the southern hemisphere of the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Brazil, and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Offshore currents push these more buoyant plastics over miles into the vortex of the Patch where they photodegrade into microplastics from the erosion properties of the sun and sea. Not only is this horrific for ocean life—search the web anytime for photos of sea turtles with plastic straws jammed up their noses or fish strangled by soda rings—but it’s also dangerous for life on earth as a whole.
Oceans, which are currently threatened by overfishing, pollution, and climate change, is a major carbon sink. Plankton, and any other animal with a hard skeleton like krill and crabs and lobster, store carbon in their body. As plastic accumulates and temperatures rise, more algae leads to more acidification, dissolving the skeletons and hard shells of these creatures. Larger animals would lose these food supplies. Not only that, but the oceans are the lungs of the earth with phytoplankton producing over 50% of the atmospheric oxygen. If the oceans die, all life on earth dies. There is no other way around that.
Scientists have analyzed ear wax in whales and found traces of pesticides, paints, and plastics. These toxins get passed on to offspring or prevent mammals from reproducing, depleting wildlife populations. As the water gets warmer, algae and cyanobacteria create algal blooms which eat up oxygen, creating dead zones that also harm marine life and ecosystems.
LANDFILL SPACE
There are slightly more than 3000 active landfills in the United States that consume over 1.8 million acres of land. The average landfill is around 600 acres, which destroy natural habitats for flora and fauna.
Some landfills, like Michigan’s Pine Tree Acres, have started to incorporate innovative technologies to support non-hazardous waste disposal and lessen our footprint. Groundwater monitoring, methane capture with a gas collection pipe, and an onsite generator to transform the methane into electricity are intended to protect the planet and reduce harmful emissions.
Aside from methane, landfills also produce carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen, which can create smog. Landfills are required to have liners to prevent leaking, but many leak anyway, creating leachate, a liquid with high levels of ammonia, which damages ecosystems, particularly waterways, creating dead zones in rivers and lakes, and killing aquatic life. Leachate also contains mercury, which is poisonous.
Landfills aren’t just detrimental to wildlife and the environment; they also pose health threats to the humans who live near them. Given that most landfills decrease the value of adjacent land—anywhere from 3-13% of a reduction—they tend to be situated in low-income areas and predominantly near minority communities, both of whom have fewer resources to fight landfill development and the risks that come along with it: namely odor, smoke, noise, environment contamination, and bugs. Most worriedly, and worse of all, is that families who live within a mile perimeter of landfills have a higher incidence of asthma, more risk of congenital malformations and disorders, and higher incidences of cancer and spontaneous abortions.
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation to and from the event is the largest contributor to carbon emissions at events, accounting for around 80% of its carbon footprint. Many events that are annual “go-to” destinations like Essence Festival in New Orleans, college football homecoming games, ComicCon, and Burning Man. While the latter advertises and aspires to “inspire sustainable solutions around the world,” the festival generates at least one hundred thousand tons of carbon dioxide each year, most of which comes from vehicle emissions as a result of over twenty thousand people traveling to and from the festival. Private jet planes also account for a portion of those emissions, from those opting for the quicker route to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Transportation is one of the largest contributors to climate change along with energy, deforestation, and agriculture. Therefore, this is a missing and somewhat hidden piece of the puzzle in terms of reducing an event’s carbon footprint since coming and going takes place outside of the time and footprint of the event.
THE SOLUTION(S)
Economist Thomas Sowell once wrote: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” As event professionals, there is no perfect answer to the environmental damage inflicted by events, but there are mitigating actions we can all take towards a zero waste, net zero outcome.
Zero waste is defined as “the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning, and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.” (Zero Waste Alliance, internationally accepted definition)
Net zero, according to the United Nations, means “cutting carbon emissions to a small amount of residual emissions that can be absorbed and durably stored by nature and other carbon dioxide removal measures, leaving zero in the atmosphere.”
In order for our events to achieve these conservation standards, we need to address how we prepare for the event on the front end with upstream solutions, and how we manage the waste on the back end with downstream solutions.
THE FRONT END/UPSTREAM SOLUTIONS
While every event poses unique challenges, and involves juggling many details to make it go smoothly, there are creative and newfound ways to reduce waste before it’s even been generated. These preventative strategies include eliminating plastics, managing food supply, maintaining a clean venue, and operational changes that can relieve the burden of downstream consequences.
The importance of working with sustainably-minded vendors and venues; reusing, up-cycling and going digital where it’s feasible; incorporating plant-based, locally sourced cuisine; sourcing sustainable materials and packaging; and finally, using environmentally friendly cleaning solutions are all factors in creating a sustainable event.
VENDORS & VENUES
Simply the act of choosing the venue is one of the most critical and strategic decisions in terms of lowering your event footprint. Choosing a venue with on-site or nearby accommodations reduces travel, which, as previously discussed, is the major contributor to carbon emissions, but there are a number of other considerations to take into account when booking your location:
While many people fly to events and drive internal combustion engine cars, the aggregate of these individual elements can take a significant dent out of your carbon production.
Another option that really decreases transportation and transportation related emissions? Going virtual or offering a hybrid option. Certainly one of the biggest enticements about events is the face-to-face opportunities and joy of human gathering, but sometimes, for some types of meetings and occasions, virtual works well too.
UPCYCLING & REUSING
Upcycling, the practice of reusing or repurposing discarded items to create new products, is a great way to take old production builds and use parts of them for new sets. If you have backdrops, carpets, bars, seats, couches, or other pieces, they can be stored and repainted or refashioned for future use. According to the Carpet America Recovery Effort, five billion pounds of carpet are sent to landfills annually. Their website allows you to find carpet reclamation partners in your area and offers ways to divert used carpets from going into landfills.
If your event occurs annually or multiple times in a year, reusing signage, carpeting, table covers, tents, production builds, flags, and other decor is the number one way to save money and prevent waste. Some organizations have gotten creative with how to reuse items we generally think of an immediately disposable. Reusing may even be a simple as collecting badges and lanyards after one event and using them again at the next one. The Lanyard Library is a nonprofit that collects used lanyards and then rents them out again as a way to prevent them from entering landfills.
A brilliant example of reuse involves the Austin Convention Center which has reusable water bottle vending machines, also known as reverse vending machines for bottle and can recycling. The water is locally bottled. Event attendees can take the water bottles out of the vending cooler, and once done, rack the used water bottle in a separate crate which easily slides into a commercial dishwasher to be sanitized and cleaned. Given that water bottles account for nearly 17 million barrels of oil annually (the equivalent to powering one million cars each year) and that it takes 22 gallons of water to produce one pound of plastic which means it takes three liters of water to make a one liter bottle of water, these kinds of innovations save in obvious ways (landfill space and plastic creation) and hidden ways (water and oil usage) that have major impact.
GOING DIGITAL
Aside from plastic, paper is ubiquitous at events. Tickets, brochures, maps, signs and posters, as well as other printed materials contribute to the garbage problem. In fact, paper accounts for 12% of the total waste at landfills. Approximately one billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the United States. So reducing paper production and consumption reduces deforestation as well as saves energy. Since the turn of the century, the earth has lost 488 million hectares of tree cover, the implications of which are not positive on multiple fronts.
Trees provide cover for soil, creating dew and moisture that promotes soil viability and growth. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis, which is vital for all human and mammalian life to breathe. Trees intercept rainfall, reduce soil erosion, and provide food and shelter to wildlife. In residential areas, trees enhance property values, beautify communities, and reduce noise pollution by up to 40%.
Paper comes in various forms: newsprint, inkjet paper, photo paper, tissue paper, yardstick, bond paper, tracing paper, coated paper, glossy paper, Bristol board, linen paper, laser paper, handmade paper, toilet paper, paper towels, and so on. Some kinds of paper like cardboard, magazines, newspapers, and paper made from long fibers are recyclable whereas coated and laminated paper are much more difficult to capture and reuse. Coated paper chemicals are not good for the environment, contributing to water pollution and ecosystem disruption.
However, some paper might be recyclable, but not always. Case in point: while a cardboard pizza box is easily recyclable, as soon as it becomes stained with cheese grease, it cannot. Now it’s simply trash. Contamination reduces recyclability, thereby shunting recyclable materials to landfills. If your event absolutely must use paper, insist on “Process Chlorine Free” (PCF) paper. PCF paper does not use chlorine during processing which reduces the production of carcinogenic dioxins that get produced when chlorine combines with lignins, the cellular glue in wood. Also, buy products with the least amount of paper and plastic packaging. And, of course, recycle the paper you do use in separate bins to avoid contamination.
The simplest way to reduce paper waste is to take your event digital. Creating an app for your event, especially if it’s an annual affair, with all the pertinent information, maps, exhibitor lists, workshop schedules, timetables, etcetera is an excellent way to easily convey information without creating waste. Scannable QR codes that send guests to websites are also highly useful as long as the venue has free and accessible wifi.
MENU PLANNING
Given the extensive issues created by event food waste, partnering with caterers who take sustainability issues seriously and employ either old fashioned or innovative means to limit excess waste is the number one way to reduce waste on the back end. Online calculators like Save the Food and software like Planning Pod offer the ability to track quantities and portions in addition to helping with budgeting and billing.
It’s not just the amount of food prepared at your event, it’s the choice of menu you offer the attendees as well. Limiting animal agriculture can have significant positive impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer areas needed for animal grazing means less deforestation .Trees, along with phytoplankton, are part of the lungs of the earth due to their oxygen-producing capabilities.
Toxic runoff from slaughterhouses coupled with methane gas produced by the livestock industry contributes to the carbon problem. Runoff poisons the land, and methane gas creates air pollution. Lastly, nitrogen-based fertilizer production, which is critical for agriculture as a whole because putting nitrogen in the soil promotes plant growth and prevents famines, creates carbon as a byproduct. Growing feed for livestock requires massive amounts of fertilizer, thus increasing carbon output even more.
The solution?
Plant-based, locally sourced, seasonal menus.
Not only is incorporating plant-based foods healthier, but you are also reducing transportation gas and energy costs by locally sourcing your ingredients. The positives of locally sourced fruits and vegetables means, fresher, more vibrant dishes with rich flavor and high nutrient content.
And no, serving plant-based doesn’t mean reducing your guests to a menu of barley and mung beans. The cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes available to you offers many distinctive and delicious combinations. Michelin star chefs like Alice Waters, Thomas Keller and Daniel Humm are now opening all vegan or mostly plant-based restaurants. Chef Leslie Durso has created an extensive plant-based menu at the Four Season’s Punta Mita resort in Mexico. Charity Morgan has converted many NFL players and hard core barbecue fanatics to her plant-based comfort foods and now has a television show Unbelievably Vegan on Max. A new top selling plant-based cookbook comes out each year.
Farmers markets carry amazing fresh produce so chefs don’t have to sacrifice taste. Even if you don’t serve a fully vegan menu, incorporating plant-based options is de rigeur nowadays given the number of people switching to healthier diets and the greater awareness of the impact we can have with our plate. The City of West Hollywood has even passed a policy requiring food and refreshments at city-sponsored events and meetings be plant-based by default with animal products only available upon request.
Caterers are taking the lead in making this shift, by sourcing both seasonally and locally. In fact, some caterers are getting extra local by producing their own ingredients. An article from Catersource notes that “from foraging for wild edibles to establishing farms and beekeeping operations, these enterprising professionals are redefining the concept of farm-to-table cuisine. Hyperlocal ingredient sourcing is the next step many caterers are taking in the ongoing sustainability journey.” (Special Events April 9 2024)
EVENT MATERIALS
One of the best ways to make your events Instagrammable and memorable is with stunning art direction and decor. Here is some insight on alternative options and simple ways to reduce waste by choosing more sustainable materials that can ultimately be reused, repurposed, composted, or recycled.
In general, so much of what we purchase is on the one way train from being made in a plant to being planted in the ground to rot and degrade over thousands of years or to contributing to the enormous amount of garbage floating around in our ecosphere. Our only way out of this is to buy products that can truly be recycled or reclaimed. We need to wrench ourselves from our linear consumerism and reorient ourselves into a circular economy.
With increased scrutiny over brands and more consumer awareness and information, younger generations want to read where things are made, what’s in them, and what the consequences of consuming them will be. This has fueled more interest in research and development of alternatives to the single use plastic phenomenon that has been ravaging our environment.
To that end, what materials are truly sustainable? How can we buy with better stewardship of Mother Earth in mind?
Generally speaking, animal and petroleum-generated products like plastics, foam, synthetic rubber, gasoline, leather, and meat are responsible for the largest percentage carbon emissions which are heating the earth. As mentioned earlier, petroleum products, which are made from fossil fuels, take years to breakdown, and many have hormone-mimicking substances called xenoestrogens which are linked to cancer. Concrete is another horror show for the environment, responsible for about 8% of our annual CO2 footprint.
Although bioplastics—polymers produced from carbohydrates, vegetable fats and oils, wood chips and sawdust, corn starch, sugar, polysaccharides and food waste in the presence of microorganisms—are generally more eco-friendly and biodegrade more easily than conventional, petroleum-based plastics, they are still toxic to marine life and take hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill.
So as you’re considering the food wares, products, sets and production builds for your event, here’s a guide to which materials are best for Mother Earth:
Sustainable Materials List
Cork. Cork forests capture 73 tons of carbon annually. Cork is harvested from the bark of a tree without actually destroying the tree and is a renewable and regenerative resource. It also can be composted.
Wool. Wool is both ecologically and non-ecologically friendly. Sheep manure contributes to methane gas production and forests are cleared away to create pastures for sheep grazing, but harvesting wool does not kill the animals and wool is easily compostable, unlike synthetic fibers which merely contribute to landfills and take much longer to break down.
Natural Latex. Made from the sap of a rubber tree, natural latex can be harvested from trees by excising the sap from the bark without killing the trees. These trees also help with carbon capture and maintaining atmospheric balance.
Bamboo. Bamboo plants reduce 35% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and return a significant amount of oxygen. Bamboo also prevents soil erosion and can be used as a barrier for crops to prevent water runoff. As it is a natural material, it decomposes quickly. The only exception to this is if bamboo is chemically processed to remove its fibers. These chemicals are toxic to living creatures and people, which makes it important to seek out non-chemically processed options.
Natural Stone. Considered “the oldest sustainable material,” stone is natural, needs minimal processing, and is incredibly durable, therefore prolonging the obsolescence of whatever is made with it. Regional stone quarries are better options so as to prevent carbon emissions from transportation.
Glass. One hundred percent recyclable with zero end waste in the process, glass is one of the most sustainable materials. It is completely non-toxic, and does minimal damage to the environment. It doesn’t leach chemicals nor does it poison or harm flora or fauna (unless they cut themselves on broken shards of it). Glass takes an enormous amount of time to break down, literally up to one million years in some cases which means that, when not recycled and put in landfills, glass will sit there for a very long time. It’s important to note that glass is made from sand that comes from sea and riverbeds as well as limestone and other recycled glass. We use more sand than is being regenerated, so it’s important to not only recycle your glass when it breaks or when you are done with it, but also to avoid single-use materials in general.
Hemp. Hemp is revered for its carbon sequestration abilities and its role in forest conservation as it produces more pulp per acre than trees and doesn’t require pesticides to grow. While hemp cultivation does require water and can create soil erosion, it also requires less energy to grow.
COMPOSTABLE & BIODEGRADEABLE FOOD WARES & SUPPLIES
Once caterers prepare the food, they have to serve it. Most food wares are made of coated wax paper and various kinds of plastic. Discardable single use items are one of the easiest to reduce on a smaller scale, but take more effort and ingenuity to minimize for large scale events.
Some venues and producers encourage a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) policy with refill stations for water, tea, soda, and coffee. Others have swapped out plastic for biodegradable and compostable materials.
Biodegradable products are those that can be broken down by bacteria and other organisms into water, carbon dioxide and biomass over an undefined time period. However, that doesn’t automatically indicate that the product is sustainable or non-toxic. Plenty of biodegradable products release methane and other chemicals into the environment. Biodegradation by definition leaves behind residues. For instance, a paper coffee cup lined with plastic will break down at some point, but it will still create microplastic waste.
For a product to be biodegradable and nontoxic, many composting landfills require BPI certification. BPI World, the Biodegradable Products Institute, provides certification for truly compostable packaging and resources for manufacturers including labs approved for product testing, updates on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards, labelling requirements, and an online product database. Products with BPI certification are marked with the end-of-life span, are designed to be able to break down with food scraps and yard trimmings without negatively impacting compost quality, and are restricted from containing carcinogens and fluorinated chemicals (PFAs). North America, Europe and Japan insist on BPI’s certification standards to label something truly biodegradable.
Compostable products, by contrast, are materials that break down into water, carbon dioxide, and biomass within a specific period of time and leave no residue after 90-180 days in a compost facility. Most compostable materials are bio-based and, as a result, do NOT leave behind any microplastics or contaminate the environment.
As sustainability becomes more than just a buzzword and turns into a market demand, more companies are rising to the occasion and offering alternatives to discardable plastic, creating affordable options for event planners who want their productions to be eco-friendly. Here is a sampling of vendors with essential consumables for events.
Food Wares
Green Paper Products offers an extensive catalogue of cups, trays, napkins, hot and cold food containers, clamshells, cutlery, gloves, paper towels, toilet paper and more. ASTM-compliant, all of the company’s products are either compostable or recyclable, with ingredients ranging from PLA to sugarcane bagasse, wheat straw fiber, bamboo, recycled paper, tPLA & CPLA, cellulose and RPET/Recycled PET.
Good Start Packaging offers various collections: some which are BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute), CMA (Compost Manufacturing Alliance), and TUV (Germany’s Technical Inspection Certification) Certified, others are simply PFA-free, and others which are compostable and Made in the USA. You can also shop by brand, and they offer many of the top ones including Packnwood, UrthPact, Vegware, Greenware, EcoSafe, Good Natured Products, Stalk Market, and their own private label.
Cutlery
The Sustainable Agave Company creates 100% compostable cutlery, straws, and cups out of tequila-production agave waste which can all be ordered in bulk for your events. Not only will you be diverting agave waste from landfills, but also reducing plastic production and waste. They also create sustainable food packaging including Kraft Boats, compostable bags, and food containers made from sugar cane.
Bamboo is also a popular choice, with The Webstaurant Store offering ECO Sky Blue Handle Birchwood Cutlery, Bambu creating compostable plates and dinnerware, and Woodable providing disposable, compostable boxes of knives, forks, and spoons.
Toilet Paper
Who Gives A Crap? is a US-based company that produces toilet paper, Kleenex, and paper towels made from recycled paper or bamboo. They have a sister company, Good Time, that makes zero waste shampoo and conditioning bars as well as soaps for cleansing and exfoliation. Cloud Paper, The Good Roll, and Seek Bamboo, and Amazon Aware also offer both recycled and sustainable toilet paper among other zero-waste bulk items.
Trash & Recycling Bags
If you are putting on a smaller, more intimate event, check out the TOMbag. A reusable garbage bag? Yes. For compost or recycling that can be emptied into a bin and doesn’t need to be bagged in the bin, the TOMbag is perfect for rinsing out and reusing.
Whereas most compostable bags tend to be flimsy and rip easily, SUPERBIO makes extra thick 33 gallon compostable bags which the company claims will degrade to humus, CO2 and water within 180 days when placed in a standard compost pile. Green Paper Products, mentioned above, has a wide range of compostable trash bags from 2.5 gallon all the way up to 90 gallons (90 gallons! who could carry that?!).
And of course, Amazon carries many of these brands and their own versions of these products online. If you are looking for more sustainable products for your event or in your day to day life, web searches using the words “zero waste” before the item you are looking for is the best way to find them.
If you really want a zero waste event, there’s the ultimate in zero waste technology, which is actually an old concept, and that is serving meals in edible packaging.
EDIBLE PACKAGING
What do we mean by edible packaging? Eat a plastic wrapper? Um, no. Replace that plastic wrap with a biomaterial like seaweed? Well…that could be interesting. If you think about it, edible packaging has already been a thing for quite a long time. If you’ve eaten an ice cream cone, nibbled on sausage (which is encased in collagen and cellulose), or swallowed a pill (shelled in gelatin or it’s vegan-friendly alternative cellulose), then you’ve encountered edible packaging. In parts of Asia, rural folk have been using plates and bowls made of banana leaves that can then be converted into cattle feed.
Again, it’s an old concept, but now, with sustainability issues ever more pressing, upstart, progressive companies are creating newer applications.
To be considered edible, packaging must comply with federal health standards, provide nutritional value, and, by definition, be biodegradable. Most edible packaging is plant based, derived from natural polymers in seaweed, rice, potato peels, and sugarcane. Some newer applications use casein (a milk product), and of course, gelatin is derived from collagen from animal hooves. Ideally, packaging should be made from both proteins and carbohydrates to ensure its durability.
Some examples of novel uses of edible packaging include:
Seaweed has become an incredibly popular and common choice for edible packaging since it only takes six weeks to cultivate and degrades quite quickly if not consumed. It dissolves in warm water, making it ideal for sachets and sporting gels. On the carbohydrate front, polysaccharides such as tapioca, carrageen, chitosan, starches from potatoes, sorghum, and wheat are often employed to give the fibrous structure whereas protein options like whey protein isolate, corn zein, egg whites, and collagen often provide the much needed “glue.”
While the market size for edible packaging was measured at somewhere between $963 million to $1.1 billion in 2023, there have been challenges in scaling production to the level where this becomes the norm instead of the outlier in the industry. In addition to limited production facilities, making it difficult to supply the demand, there is also the issue of how to protect edible packaging from contamination when being stored or transported. Using plastic packaging to protect edible packaging is oxymoronic and self-defeating, but the shining benefit of plastic is that it helps extend shelf life, blocks germs and contaminants, and can be made sterile.
Edible packaging is also very sensitive to temperature and heat, making it costly to ship (not to mention the carbon footprint of the refrigeration needed to transport it), and somewhat impractical for shipping long distances. Humidity particularly can accelerate biodegradation.
That said, edible packaging is another tool in increasing sustainability, and the potential for its implementation in food service, is both exciting and revolutionary. Here is a list of some of the companies leading the way:
Evoware
Materials: cassava, rice, seaweed, sugarcane, bamboo, birchwood, Areca palm
Products: bags, mailers, sachets, wrapping, straws, cups, food containers, cutlery
Good Start Packaging:
Materials: plant fiber, bamboo, corn
Products: to go boxes, clamshells, straws, cold cups, coffee cups, juice bottles, bags, deli containers, bowls, utensils, napkins, custom printing
Notpla
Materials: seaweed
Products: food containers, rigid cutlery, energy gel pods, paper, food oil pipette, laundry sachet, bath oil sachet, dry food sachet
Sorbos
Materials: sugar, water, bovine gelatin, sodium, carboxymethylcellulose, glycerine, flavoring, antioxidant, citric acid, humectant, stabilizer
Products: straws
Edible Coffee Cups
Materials: oat fibers, cocoa husk fibers, durum wheat semolina pasta, whole wheat grain flower,
Products: waffle cups, biscuit cups, spoons, straws, biscuit spoons
Incredible Eats
Materials: wheat flour, brown rice, corn flour, chickpea flour, oat flour, cane sugar, guar gum, flavoring, pectin, malodextrin, gluten, sugar, sunflower oil, Sucralose
Products: spoons, straws, food wares, bags
Edible packaging is an odd niche, but also fun and constructive way to tackle food ware waste head on. It’s also a way to engage the consumer in your branding activation or sporting event to make it novel, eco-friendly, and thought-provoking. Not only will it reduce your event footprint but it will also make it memorable.
GREENWASHING
Greenwashing is a term coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld which refers to the practice of marketing products in a way that makes them seem more sustainable and environmentally friendly than they actually are. Unfortunately, as consumers become more and more interested in making more ethical choices, many corporations want to seem like they are course-correcting to lowering pollutants and carbon emissions without actually doing what needs to be done.
One of the most prominent instances of greenwashing occurs in labelling, particularly when companies advertise their products as “all-natural,” which essentially means nothing. “USDA Certified Organic” is a specific label that requires certification based on implementing rigorous practices and conservation methods. According to the USDA site: Organic products must be produced using agricultural production practices that foster resource cycling, promote ecological balance, maintain and improve soil and water quality, minimize the use of synthetic materials, be produced without genetic engineering, ionizing radiation sludge, or sewage sludge among other prohibited methods, and conserve biodiversity. “All natural” has zero meaning. Anyone can use it. And of course, just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Arsenic is “all natural.” So is hemlock. As are oleanders. And mercury. You don’t want to ingest any of those.
So how do you know if a company is greenwashing? There are a number of methods used as subterfuge to steer customers the wrong way.
Performative actions.
A local gas company once launched a campaign about how they were creating habitats to preserve the El Segundo Blue Butterfly. Meanwhile, the entire neighborhood next to their plant sat on a reserve of hydrofluorocarbons that were seeping into the groundwater and, if ignited, could explode.
Selectively disclosing what they do as opposed to what they don’t do.
This is inevitably true with the use of plastic, even bio-plastics. 90% of the plastics made in the world do not get recycled. In fact, most of it winds up in the ocean where, by 2050, scientists reckon there will be more plastic than fish and wildlife. Calling a product “recyclable” isn’t the same thing as it actually being able to be recycled. And bioplastics need both oxygen and sunlight to decompose, which is not actually available in landfills.
Planned obsolescence.
Some tech companies talk about their recycling programs and how they have cut down on e-waste and packaging. Yes, digital media has decreased the environmental cost of production of CDs, DVDs, and books and the plastic waste and deforestation that comes along with it. However, all tech devices are made with the intention of lasting only a few years and the lithium batteries needed to power some of them are mined by slaves in Africa. Mining is also one of the worst industries in terms of leaving a carbon footprint. In fact, older computers and devices often are found to last longer than newer ones. Whereas a laptop lasted almost ten years twenty years ago, today they are more inclined to break down after five to seven. Electric cars, while better in terms of fuel emissions, often need to be traded in after ten to twelve years after the battery degrades and are harder to fix than older automobiles because they have many more electronic components.
In the cleaning business, there are many products that declare themselves to be environmentally sound but, on a more studied glance, are actually not. Without a degree in chemistry, how do you actually know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY CLEANING SOLUTIONS
If you want to put on a sparkling and streamlined event, then live event trash management, restroom maintenance, and overall venue upkeep are essential, not optional.
Cleaning is one of the most integral components to creating a sustainable event. Imagine you went to the county fair and there was no one to pick up the trash. Or you went to a stadium and the venue just let the toilet paper run out? Without live event porters, trash cans would overflow, plastic bags and cups would roll like tumbleweeds throughout the event space, restrooms would deteriorate into muck. Attendees would be repulsed.
Equally important are the supplies and solutions used to keep the event space clean and safe. Many cleaning supplies are toxic (like TSP and borax) or have noxious fumes (bleach).
The Environmental Working Group is an organization provides online resource guides for consumers in the areas of personal care products, cosmetics, cleaning agents, and your local tap water pollutants. Their areas of focus also include farming and agriculture, the food system, and family health. Their downloadable phone app allows anyone to check out how environmentally friendly products are while shopping for them.
Two of the best cleaning agents that pose the least amount of threat in terms of human and environmental safety are white vinegar and baking soda. Both baking soda and vinegar are known for their versatility and utility. And we know they are not only sustainable but nontoxic because you can consume them as well.
Baking soda, chemically known as Sodium bicarbonate, is a crystalline natural salt that appears as a fine powder. It is alkaline, soluble in water, and decomposes when heated. Often used in baking recipes as a leavening agent in combination with an acid and a liquid, baking soda helps make your cakes, cookies, and pancakes fluffy instead of flat.
That said, overuse and mass consumption of baking soda can lead to potassium or chloride blood deficiencies, hypochloremia, hypernatremia, and symptoms like gas, nausea, diarrhea, and stomach pain.
Vinegar, on the other hand, is an acidic aqueous solution made of acetic acid and small compounds that may contain flavorings. It’s a fermented product made from sugars such as vodka, wine, cider, or beer and bacteria.
Vinegar, mixed with oil, makes a fine vinaigrette, and can be used in balsamic reduction sauces to glaze vegetables as well as an acid agent in baking pies and desserts, but like baking soda, too much is not a good thing. Vinegar can trigger nausea and acid reflux, erode tooth enable, and inflame intestines if you try to become intoxicated by it.
When baking soda and vinegar are mixed together, however—magic! They neutralize each other in a bubbling, fizzing, reaction that foams up with carbon dioxide gas and ultimately leaves behind salty water. This reaction helps loosen and dissolve stains and gunk. Baking soda’s alkaline properties help dirt and grease dissolve in water while vinegar’s acidic nature loosens mineral deposits like lime and rust and dissolves soap scum. Vinegar is also a powerful disinfectant because it also kills microorganisms.
Microfiber towels are highly effective at pulling up hair, dust, and particles before employing water and cleaning solutions to wipe down surfaces, but be forewarned, they are made of plastic. Other textiles made from plastic include polyester, acrylic, spandex, rayon and nylon. These fibers shed microplastic particles into waterways when washed unless put in Guppyfriend washing bags.
By contrast, cotton towels with a large open weave can swipe up debris and are preferable in terms of their ecological impact. Facesoft and Reusable Paper Towels, made from 100% cotton, and Sponge Cloths, made from cellulose, are great alternatives.
There’s more to cleaning up an event than taking out the trash. Along with picking up litter, you’ll need to break down signage, move furniture, clean bathrooms, and leave your venue how you found it. Hiring a professional cleaning company can also help you further your sustainability efforts by having a crew to recycle items, compost food waste, and implement other landfill diversion strategies.
THE BACKEND/DOWNSTREAM SOLUTIONS
The more sustainability strategies are employed during the planning and execution of the event, the less waste will be produced to deal with on the backend. Backend solutions involve how waste is handled once it is produced and how to minimize the impact that waste will have on the environment.
Landfill diversion tactics through recycling, compost, food recovery and donation, liquid disposal, and oil recycling are the primary downstream solutions for improving your event footprint. Lastly, having event cleanup staff on site to manage waste as it is being generated and afterwards to ensure site preservation round off our list of sustainable event strategies.
RECYCLING – IS IT REALLY A THING?
Some privately owned dumpster rental and trash hauling companies will tell you that recycling isn’t actually a thing. They insist they have been to landfills and there’s no recycling. This is only partly true. It’s often true there’s no access to recycling or compost or sustainable waste management for them.
The reality is that franchise haulers and massive corporations are the only ones who have the infrastructure for compost and single stream recycling systems. These companies include behemoths like Republic and Waste Management. The franchise haulers earn big government contracts; they provide union, decent paying jobs (primarily for drivers under the International Brotherhood of Teamsters), and then they also take that money to invest in electric trucks—one truck can cost around $480,000—single stream sorting technology (more on that shortly), and special bins and machinery so that they can comply with laws and monetize garbage.
While every state is different—California unsurprisingly has some of the most stringent sustainability laws in place for instance—on a national scale, because many of the materials that wind up in landfills are valuable in the manufacturing sector, all the major waste management corporations are highly incentivized to invest in high tech sorting mechanisms in order to capture these materials. Those include all kinds of metal including aluminum and tin, residential papers and news, cardboard, bulky rigid, glass, and certain kinds of plastic.
What is single stream recycling? It’s a much more efficient manner of separation than having multiple streams. Instead of pre-sorting garbage into different bins, which not many residences, businesses, or events could manage the space, logistics, or compliance for each of recoverable material, all the garbage and recycling is funneled through one system. In this sorting machinery, spinning rubber disks separate out cardboard and paper, magnets pull out metals, optical sensors filter out plastic, and artificial intelligence robots differentiate among plastic types and pull them into designated bins.
The downside of the fact that only the bigger companies can handle recycling and trash separation is that, because they have to spend so much money on the necessary technology and facilities, their services are also slower and cost more. In California, where laws AB 2176 and SB 54 mandate materials recycling and ban single use plastic waste in favor of compostable or recyclable packaging respectively, the cost of landfill diversion must be incorporated into the event budget. Many cities, including Santa Monica, Malibu, San Francisco, and Sacramento, require that event producers register landfill diversion plans with the cities where they are hosting the event.
Setting expectations and advertising your sustainability intentions upfront goes a long way towards making those efforts successful. Attendees need to know about your sustainability efforts so they can be conscious of their own use of resources. If you have compost or recycling bins, signage will let them know what they can place in each bin. Volunteers and staff should also be trained on your sustainable event priorities so they can direct guests and assist with cleanup efforts.
If your event is in California, CalRecycle’s website advertises who the franchise haulers are for your event location and lists what can and cannot be recycled. If your event is in other states, look to the major haulers to provide dumpsters and roll-offs to accomplish your sustainability goals.
FOOD RECOVERY
Recycling is the only path to capture and reuse inorganic materials, but food, which is number one on our Event Dirty Dozen list, can be recovered or composted (more on that later). Food recovery includes donating uneaten food to regional food banks and charitable organizations like White Pony, the Salvation Army, Mend Poverty, and neighborhood churches.
California law SB 1383 mandates food recovery for all events over 2000 people as of January 2024. In tandem with that, AB 1219, the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, provides liability protections to people and organizations who make good faith donations of surplus food. This liability protection extends to past-expiration-date food but does not include people who are found to have committed gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
While food that has been served to consumers cannot be donated, excess meals that remained in back of house are eligible. Any food not eligible for food donation can be repurposed in several ways. First, excess food can be ground into animal feed, helping reduce feed costs for farmers while lowering methane emissions. To donate food for animal feed, contact your local county agricultural extension office (USDA) for information. You can also connect with local farmers or ranchers in your area if your municipality is more rural.
Food scraps can also generate energy via anaerobic digestion. Microorganisms break down food, yard waste, and manure to produce biogas and a soil amendment which can generate methane that is converted for energy, as discussed earlier. To donate food for energy generation requires partnering with your local waste hauler (like Waste Management) or utility district.
Food recovery software like Careit simplifies the process of donating food and goods directly to local nonprofits. Used by Sizzler, Smart & Final, the Rose Bowl and AMC Theaters among other restaurants, grocers and other food producers, Careit is a food donation marketplace that matches food donors with local organizations that feed people in need. The app recently introduced an animal food rescue program as well. Not only does the marketplace allow organizations in need of food to rescue food in real time, but it also prevents the practice of “donation dumping” which taxes understaffed nonprofits and winds up not being used due to spoilage and inability to identify the source.
Americans waste over 40% of our agricultural production which amounts to $218 billion worth of food. Food recovery solves two issues at once: it alleviates food insecurity and reduces methane gas production through landfill diversion.
COMPOST
The other option for food that cannot be recovered is to dispose of it in organics bins and send it to be composted. Composting food incorporates oxygen which prevents the production of methane, improves soil by adding nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, iron, and zinc, improves the soil’s structure and ability to retain water by adding smaller particles to prevent soil from clumping into clay, and fertilizes plants by releasing nutrients to help them grow. Compost feeds earthworms and other microbes that churn soil and oxygenate the soil to feed plants. It prevents soil erosion, increases resilience to both floods and droughts, and helps with carbon sequestration. According to Compost Magazine, “one research project found that 1/2 inch of compost applied to rangeland sequestered the equivalent of one metric ton of CO2 per hectare over three years.” In other words, applying compost to open country dirt means more carbon gets absorbed by the dirt and stays in the ground.
Part of the way that compost protects plants from temperature and moisture level changes is by encouraging the growth of mycorrhizal fungi which create an interconnected relationship to plant roots, protecting them from soil pathogens and increasing mineral uptake. Compost also stabilizes the pH level of the soil by encouraging earthworms to aerate the soil, making it less acidic.
Now required by law in California, all residential and commercial communities are required to compost organic waste. From the CalRecycle Website: “Organic waste” includes food, green material, landscape and pruning waste, organic textiles and carpets, lumber, wood, paper products, printing and writing paper, manure, biosolids, digestate, and sludges. California’s law aims to reduce organic waste dumped in landfills by 75% by 2025.
Since landfills are the third largest source of methane gas in California, and organic items like food scraps, yard trimmings, and paper and cardboard products constitute half of what is dumped in landfills, reducing this organic waste by diverting it to composting facilities will have the fastest impact on reducing carbon emissions. 
Composting also creates jobs which are important for each stage in the recovery. There are skilled equipment operators for turners, loaders, grinders, and screeners—not to mention all the jobs created by delivering, selling, and dispersing compost to parks, farms, and gardens. Composting employs two times the number of workers than landfills and four times more than commercial incinerators.
Because biodegradable and compostable materials only degrade as intended if the light, aeration, and moisture levels are ideal, some of the larger waste management companies have created sophisticated systems which have cut the time needed to compost materials from 6 months down to 60-90 days.
Athens Services, for instance, collects organic waste from green bins and dumpsters and takes it by transfer trucks to compost facilities where it is weighted with underground scales before being unloaded onto a tipping floor. Workers remove contamination on this floor and operators load the material onto a conveyor belt where auger screens sort the material into 3-inch pieces or smaller. Workers on the line remove plastic, palm fronds, textiles, garbage, and cacti which cannot be composted and funnel the remaining larger green waste into a grinder.
The remaining organic waste which is either 3 inches or has been ground down becomes added to a stockpile which goes through a process called CASP (Covered Aerated Static Pile) where ventilation fans aerate and dry out the pile and heat it up to 131°F to eliminate pathogens. Machines mix the materials which are placed in piles to be cured and then packaged for use.
While California is leading the way with over two hundred operating full-scale food waste composting facilities along with six other states (New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Washington, Texas, and North Carolina), there are ten states which have zero organics recycling infrastructure at all (Alabama, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia).
Composting is a major component of landfill diversion and supports market growth as well.
OIL RECYCLING
Unlike other organic products, oil cannot be composted, ruins recyclable materials, and soils the environment. Olive oil, canola oil, walnut oil, grape seed oil, sesame seed oil, you name it. All kinds of oil can create all kinds of trouble and properly recycled oil prevents environmental contamination as well as unexpected costs for repairing infrastructure.
It’s also an important landfill diversion strategy as the event industry inches its way towards zero waste.
The process for recycling oil involves the following steps:
Oil recycling has many benefits. This nascent industry has created jobs in the fields of engineering, technology and transportation. In fact, restaurant oil recycling companies generated upwards of $1.64 billion in 2023. The main products created by recycling, biodiesel and renewable diesel, which produce 74% fewer carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum-based fuels, minimize pollution.
Use of plant based fuels reduces American reliance on foreign oil production from countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia, keeping the economic benefits in country. And recycling oil also provides base level ingredients for many other products including cosmetics, soaps, shampoos and moisturizers, paints, detergents, furniture polish, and animal feed.
(Just a helpful warning: while motor oil can also be recycled, don’t mix it with cooking oil since they require separate processes to recycle. Also, never pour cooking oil or used cooking oil directly into your gas tank. This could ruin your car!)
Most importantly for event cleaning, oil removal helps keep your kitchen or food truck clean!
LIVE & POST EVENT CLEANING
Keeping your event footprint clean is one of the simplest and most obvious downstream strategies for site preservation. While smaller events might be fine with a simple post-event cleanup crew, large scale events regardless of whether they are indoor or outdoor mandate live event porters including restroom attendants and trash management.
Trash Management
One of the simplest and most obvious preventative strategies to stop garbage from tumbling into storm drains and winding up in waterbodies and our oceans is capturing and picking up garbage during and immediately post event. On site cleaning crews can change out trash liners before they overflow and become full, pick trash up off the ground and separate trash on site to make sure that the correct materials wind up in the right bins.
Renting reusable trash cans instead of using cardboard boxes, proper signage on cans or boxes so that patrons know where to throw away what, and employing golf carts and trash caddies at larger events to keep up with guest waste generation are all ways to reduce waste and facilitate waste management.
Because dumpster rental and trash hauling are, far and above, the most expensive part of many event estimates with the exception of labor, many try to skimp on this which sometimes costs more both in aggravation and expenditure in the end.
How many trash cans and dumpsters will your event require? Here are several important factors to consider:
If your event involves food and beverage, like a food festival, you will undoubtedly be producing a lot of waste, and it will involve refuse, recycling, oil, liquid, and organics. Understanding how to categorize your trash is important and knowing how to break down trash and recycling to maximize dumpster space is also critical and can save money and prevent flyaway garbage.
Dumpster placement can be critical to on site trash management as well. If your venue is exceedingly long or large in layout, you may need multiple locations for dumpsters so that the cleaning crew does not spend most of the time trekking back and forth between the dumpsters and the cans to empty them.
If you have any kind of bar serving alcohol which tends to come in glass bottles, those bottles can be heavy (and rip trash bags if they are too flimsy) and take up a lot of space in dumpsters. Glass is also one of few materials that is redeemable for cash and can be recycled, and in many states, it is mandatory to do so. In situations where lots of liquids are being served, alcoholic or not, renting Pour Away receptacles to divert liquid from dumpsters will save money from excess weight. These liquid receptacles help keep recycled materials from being contaminated as well.
As a general rule, your event will need one of each type of can (trash, recycling, compost) per 30 people, but as the numbers grow bigger, the ratio can sometimes compress depending upon how many people are coming through that area at once. It’s one thing to have 10,000 festival goers at your venue at once versus 10,000 throughout an eight hour period where possibly only 3000 guests will be on the premises at any one time.
As far as dumpsters are concerned, consulting with waste management or event cleaning companies who can provide real world case studies to figure out your cubic yardage needs is always best, and always over estimate as opposed to underestimate your waste management needs. A general rule of thumb is: there is always more garbage than you think there will be.
Restroom Attendants
Restroom attendants not only ensure presentable and comfortable bathrooms for your guests, but also can be attuned to clogging or malfunctions that might lead to sewage catastrophes. While cleaners are not plumbers, an adept cleaning company will tell you that if you are having an event at a private estate, it’s important to factor in that a toilet configured to handle twenty flushes a day may not be able to handle two hundred flushes an hour.
Having trash bins in or near the restrooms is also critical to prevent guests from discarding hand towels in the toilet which will create a backlog and a major plumbing disaster. Not only is this not a good look for any event, sewage is a human health hazard, and, as discussed previously, raw sewage spills are detrimental to the environment.
General Cleaning
Cleaning brick and mortar venues has a final added benefit that isn’t immediately obvious in terms of green house gas accounting but pays dividends over time: preservation. Regular and deep cleaning, window washing, power washing, carpet cleaning, floor detailing—all help maintain paint jobs, lengthen the life of the floors and windows, prevent mildew and mold growth and dirt buildup and decay. The cost of rebuilding a venue, the construction debris and materials disposal fees, and the loss of use of space can add up to millions, not to mention the environmental cost of mining those materials and transporting them and using machinery and electricity to build.
CONCLUSION
Events are huge economic generators, foster enjoyment, and promote goodwill. From weddings and birthday parties to branding activations and awards galas to outdoor festivals and sporting competitions, human beings find connection, delight, and entertainment through gathering and celebration. No other species finds as much interest in watching other members of their own species perform or compete or honoring each other for who they are or what they’ve done.
But events are significant contributors to climate change and waste production. The top six causes of climate change include: fossil fuel production, deforestation, animal agriculture (particularly livestock production), transportation, overfishing, and plastic production, use and disposal. Events are a microcosm of these problems with requirements that contribute to each sector. But event industry professionals can choose a different route and thankfully for the future of our planet, many (like the NFL, NBA, and MLB) are.
Almost all sporting stadiums now have landfill mitigation programs in effect. Technology has contributed to reducing waste with digital tickets and programs, and apps like Careit have increased the ease and frequency of food donation. On top of that, policies like Build Back Better have aimed to increase infrastructure for carbon capture, recycling, and composting throughout the United States.
Ingenuity and creativity are what make events special and memorable. Ingenuity, creativity and effort are what drives making them sustainable as well.
As the saying goes, we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. So while we are all borrowing, let’s also make sure to give back.
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