Hello,
I work for a production company that runs music festival and we are looking into using plastic plates for backstage catering and possible front of house where vendors sell food to festival attendees. I was wondering if anyone has seen or conducted any research on which is more sustainable to use in an event setting- plastic plates that can be washed and reused or paper plates that can be composted. Any information on the topic would be most helpful.
Thanks,
Bonnie Mahl
Bonnie Mahl
Planet Bluegrass
Festivarian Sustainability Coordinator
www.bluegrass.com
Plastic Plates vrs Paper Plates
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Dear Bonnie:
You might also be interested in contacting UC Davis R4, which annually hosts a large scale zero waste event, and UC Davis Whole Earth Festival organizers, since the WEF has a thriving, several year-old program of washable dishes/utensils, for which people put down a small deposit, similar to the Edmonton structure.
R4: http://r4.ucdavis.edu/ and Lin King is the director of the R4 program
WEF: http://wef.ucdavis.edu/content/view/23/50/
Regards,
Camille Kirk
Associate Environmental Planner
Office of Resource Management and Planning
University of California, Davis
[email protected]
http://www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/
Hi Bonnie,
You might want to try contacting the Edmonton Folk Festival Organizers in Alberta, Canada. They use re-washable plastic plates. Concert goers pay a fee of $2 for every plate they need at various food tents and receive $2 back once they've returned the plate for washing. http://www.edmontonfolkfest.org/010.community/keep-it-green.html
Vanessa
...
Hi Bonnie,
I worked on a music festival in Western Australia which trialed compostable containers. The show was waste audited and if you email me directly I can provide our report from 2006. There were few examples of other events at that time but one to look at who also partnered with a university to evaluate their initiatives is WOMADelaide www.womadelaide.com.au . I've since been to events in NZ like WOMAD in Taranaki and Sound Splash in Raglan who tried various things but I'm not sure of their levels of success. The Wave Rock Weekender in WA www.soulhighway.com.au uses Polylactic Acid (PLA) beer cups imported by a WA company www.dzolv.com.au and originally trialed potato plates www.potatopak.co.nz which are great but have to come from New Zealand. I like them because they are genuinely totally organic with no chemical bonding agents and are made from a by-product of potato processing. You'll have to research the products in your area but watch out for vague claims about bio-degradability and check ingredients, testing, etc to make sure you'll be able to compost them. Paper is compostable too of course. If you're going to use compostables it's also important to make sure you've got somewhere or someone to process and use the compost, ideally nearby - like the WOMADelaide BioBin thing http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s1351252.htm an Australian invention - if your show will produce large amounts of compostable waste. You also need to make sure you control, brief, and assist all vendors to use the products you decide on and control packaging coming into the event as much as possible. Clearly labeled bins and an education strategy for suppliers, bands and punters are crucial because if the waste isn't sorted correctly you will have poor waste recovery results. You can do this yourself at some sort of waste station and there are lots of ways to get patrons engaged.
Good luck.
Karen Lee
Acting Program Officer,
Community Sustainable Energy Development Office
P: +61 8 9420 5664
F: +61 8 9420 5699
www.sedo.energy.wa.gov.au