There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed. ~Mohandas K. Gandhi

After making the decision to go green, we've put some extra effort into examining our basic operations, finding what we can alter quickly, easily and economically, and putting this into practice. Going ahead with the easier options first means that whilst we are trying to solve the more difficult problems we are still making a difference, however small it may be.

The major waste production at our events is centred around the catering operations. We have ordered a number of waste recycling stations for use at our events. These will be set up so that aluminium cans, plastic bottles and waste paper can be easily placed into the correct container by members of the public. We have arranged with a number of organisations for them to take delivery of this waste stream. The cans are actually a valuable commodity, we have decided that any returns from them will be reinvested into our recycling efforts. The plastic and paper won't earn any revenue, but they will be taken out of landfill so that is a benefit in itself.

Our coffee carts are being switched to 100% biodegradable cups. The lids aren't available in a degradable form as yet, but a mini version of our recycling station will be sited with a coffee cart to enable the plastic lids to be collected for recycling. The teabags and used coffee grinds will also be collected and forwarded to a gardening company we deal with, it seems they make excellent compost.

With the best intention in the world, we are still going to be left with some waste that we cannot recycle and is going to end up in landfill. We are using biodegradable refuse bags to transport the rubbish in so at least the amount of plastic we dump will be reduced.

Clear candy floss bags in biodegradable form are proving a bit more problematic. The best price we have found so far is around 6 times that of normal bags, which is a bit steep. We will keep looking and eventually I have no doubt that we will source something more affordable. That will only leave us with the candy floss sticks to deal with. Being made of wood the hope is that we will be able to drop them in at a wood recyclers.

As soon as one of the recycling stations turn up I will post some photos here, in the meantime I'm off the try and find some accurate information on the level of biodiesel an unmodified engine can tolerate.


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