Bath & North East Somerset Council - Events Waste Guidance

Events Waste Guidance

Making your event more sustainable

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Recycling doesn’t stop with your green box at home…

If you are organising any event, from a community street party to a large public event, it is important to plan ahead to make it as ‘green’ as possible by managing it sustainably.

The guidance below is aimed at those planning smaller community events, such as street parties and fetes which are for local residents only. These are usually organised by local residents rather than bigger commercial types of events.

Road closure and collections

If you want to close your road for an event or party, you need to apply for a street closure. Please see guidance on our Community events page.

If your event is to take place on your normal waste and recycling collection day, this may mean that we cannot collect in the usual way and you will need to contact us to discuss and agree alternative arrangements for all the residents who will be affected. As the event organiser, you will need to let the affected residents know about the changes.

If your event is basically organising a party for you and your neighbours outside, with everyone bringing food and drink from their homes, then you should encourage everyone to take their waste home and recycle as much as possible through our collection services. As an alternative to this, you could arrange for a member of the organising team to take separated bags to recycle at one of our Recycling Centres.

Recycling at larger public events

Whatever the size of your event from a small local show to a large commercial one, it is important that you plan how to manage the waste created and recycle as much of it as possible. This can lead to:

cost savings
a reduced environmental impact (such as less waste being sent to landfill)
a cleaner, more pleasant site and positive publicity

For very large, commercial events, these are two companies we're aware of who specialise in event recycling:

Network Recycling http://www.networkrecycling.co.uk/

M J Church http://www.event-waste-management.com/

Planning your event

All waste produced at an event is subject to strict regulation. When organising an event you must ensure that litter and waste is removed from the site at the end. For more information about your responsibilities please see Duty of Care.

So, when planning your event it is important to consider:

1. Who is going to collect what materials, and how they will recycle as much of it as possible.

You can find suitable waste and recycling companies (other than the Council’s commercial waste and recycling service) in local directories or on the internet.

Your chosen waste contractor or carrier must be registered with the Environment Agency. You can check if they are registered on the Environment Agency website at Public Registers so please check this to make sure that litter and recycling is disposed of properly.

If you are inviting traders/concessions, ensure that they know about recycling and litter arrangements. If you are inviting food and drink vendors then your agreement with them might include them taking their own waste away for disposal.

2. What containers you are going to use for recycling and waste and where to place them.

You will need to discuss this with your chosen waste and recycling company early on in the planning stage.

Think about placing containers at sources of potential waste such as food and drinks stands and routes in and out of the event.
Always place a litter bin next to the recycling bins so that people have to make a choice about in which bin to put their waste item - this will help prevent contamination of the recycling.
Check who is responsible for labelling the containers so it is easy for people to put their waste in the right place.
The number of bins needed will relate to the of visitors expected and the type of event.

3. Publicise what you are doing

Advertise the fact that you are recycling at your event – use the national ‘recycle now’ logo and material icons such as those for cans and plastic bottles, on publicity posters etc. These are now recognised by many people and are available from www.recyclenow.com
Use event registration/entrance points as an opportunity to let people know about recycling arrangements at the event.
Contact the Waste Campaigns Team at the Council to see if we can bring our recycling road show to your event.

Reducing waste at your event

Even better than having to recycle waste is to reduce the amount of waste created in the first place.

Here are some ideas:

Catering

Only allow concessions that use recyclable, compostable or reusable cups, plates and utensils to trade at your event.
Consider hiring equipment rather than buying.
Encourage waste reduction by serving condiments such as sugar, milk, vinegar, ketchup in bulk rather than individual packages.
Use recycled products whether possible e.g. toilet roll, pencils, recycled vending cups, serviettes, etc
Ensure there is a supply of tap drinking water to avoid selling bottled water.

Publicity

Make use of electronic methods such as local websites and e-newsletters to promote your event, rather than use too much paper.
Print necessary publicity materials on recycled paper and try not to over-order on print runs.
Design and print leaflets on double sided paper.
Signage - to make sure you can reuse them avoid putting date on if possible.
Use whiteboards or chalk boards rather than flip charts.
Use reusable name badges (if appropriate) and collect in at the end of the event.

Other