I spend a lot of time up close and personal with trash.
I’ve written before about how sorting waste is oddly satisfying. But I haven’t told you how invaluable it is to see your event’s waste first-hand.
You can make some assumptions about the contents of your waste by looking at your supplies. What are food and drinks being served in? What items are you giving away?
But you won’t fully understand the waste your event generates without seeing it for yourself.
The process of analyzing the contents of your waste is called a waste audit. Waste audits are a common tactic used by sustainability professionals to help organizations assess how they manage their waste and identify opportunities to divert more waste from the landfill.
An official waste audit is a formal process where items are sorted and quantified, so you have data to support changes to your system. However, you can also learn a lot from an informal waste audit: put on a pair of gloves and peruse through three or four bags of waste from one area of your event.
What can browsing your trash tell you?
Looking into bags of waste will show you the surprise items being thrown away by your staff or vendors. You may not know all of the supplies that are required to create a particular aspect of the event. You may also be surprised by how much waste certain aspects of your event generate.
It will also show you how successful your event is at capturing recyclable or reusable items. Are there lots of cans and bottles in your trash, even though you set up recycling bins? Are items being thrown away that you could have reused or donated?
Your trash can tell you a lot about communication breakdowns that might be keeping your good intentions from successful execution.
Finally, getting to know your trash will show you how much opportunity there is to divert almost all of it from the landfill. When you get up close with trash, you realize that the vast majority of waste is recyclable or compostable. With the right system in place, your event can dramatically reduce the amount of waste it sends to the landfill.
It might sound crazy, but I encourage you to spend a little time with your trash after your next event. You won’t believe how much you learn, and how suddenly not crazy the idea of a zero waste event will start to seem.
Say goodbye to unnecessary waste. Use my recycling, composting and donation services at your next event to dramatically reduce waste.