EVENT GREENING FORUM

Top tips to responsible recycling revealed at Event Greening Forum workshop

During the ‘Starting Strong, Going Green: Event Sustainability & Waste Management Workshop’ that took place virtually on 22 May 2024, attendees found out how they can reduce, reuse and recycle more responsibly.

More organisations are being brought under the spotlight for failing to meet their sustainability responsibilities. However, the reality is that a lot of South Africans don’t have enough information, guidance, or the right systems in place to address this.

During the ‘Starting Strong, Going Green: Event Sustainability & Waste Management Workshop’, vice chairperson of the Event Greening Forum Neo Mohlatlole and Grace Stead, who has been part of the Forum since its inception, gave attendees guidance on achieving greener events.

Ms Stead suggested that, instead of handing out plastic water bottles at events, organisers should rather use water jugs with glasses. Companies can also use generic signage, badges, and lanyards at events so they can reuse them year-on-year. “Meetings Africa doesn’t date stamp their signage, so they can reuse it at different exhibitions,” she explained.

“It’s important to encourage exhibitors to return their badges and lanyards so that they can be reused instead of taking them home and disposing of them there,” she said. “EGF also takes these and redistributes them to NGO events.” Ms Stead advises using a bin or interactive display to help them remember as they leave.

Additionally, leftover food should be redistributed to charities like FoodBank and SA Harvest, for example.

Instead of single-use packaging, like they use for sugars and sauces, we can use sugar shakers and sauce bottles instead. We can also replace plastic cutlery and plates with glass, silverware, and ceramics.

Ms Stead also emphasised the importance of effective waste management, explaining that there are three main categories when working with waste: dry, good, and waste that ends up in the landfill.“Make sure you have clear signs and systems to control this, like colour bins, labelled lids, and instructions. Your bins also need to be placed in key locations, such as the kitchen, cafeterias, and bathrooms.”

She added that contamination is a big concern when it comes to waste management. “As soon as you put any food items or wet items into your dry recyclables, it contaminates the entire batch and you won’t be able to recycle it anymore.”

Mr Mohlatlole also suggested investing in Bokashi Food Waste Recycling Bins, which compost food waste and create a liquid that you can use to grow your garden. This is important, because if you put a banana peel in the rubbish bin and it goes to the dump, it stays covered all the time. There’s no oxygen for the banana peel to decompose, so it creates methane gas instead, which is 21 times worse than carbon dioxide.

However, Mr Mohlatlole knows that greening goes beyond water and electricity conservation. “Many times, events are parachuted into regions and the local communities don’t benefit from it. Instead of giving our delegates and attendees a gift, we run a voucher system for local suppliers. After the event, they can use these vouchers to support the local communities by buying their products.”

Ms Stead and Mr Mohlatlole both concluded by referring to the EGF platform, which provides a detailed guide on how businesses (especially in the event industry) can go green.