Waste Less of an Event After Major Shows

A new way to manage rubbish and recycling at major events has proved so successful that rugby fans will be the next to benefit.

The new initiative was used at last weekend’s (27 February) Cliff Richard and The Shadow’s concert at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands, with amazing results.

The same system will be rolled out at June’s Ireland-All Blacks test match in New Plymouth, and next year’s three Rugby World Cup 2011 matches at Stadium Taranaki.

“Part of Taranaki’s successful Rugby World Cup bid includes minimising waste at these big games, and after the weekend’s Cliff Richards and The Shadows concert we think we are on the right path to hitting our targets come 2011,” says Manager Venues and Rugby World Cup Jenny Mills.

“The push on proper recycling at the venue and a request for people to take their rubbish home resulted in a lot less rubbish than usual after the Bowl concert, and a much quicker tidy-up afterwards.

“A big part of it is having the rubbish and recycling stations manned with people who can talk to the public and help them put their waste into the right bins.

“We also rely on the willingness of the public, so we have a big thank you to those who played their part – their efforts made a noticeable difference!”

The two Fleetwood Mac concerts at the Bowl in December generated 5.36 tonnes of rubbish, while the single Cliff Richard and The Shadows concert generated just 540kg of waste – the rest was made up of 920kg of separately collected recyclables.

After each Fleetwood Mac concert it took 20 people five hours to remove litter from the Bowl. After Saturday’s concert it took 40 people just three quarters of an hour.

Saturday’s concert had 20 people stationed at rubbish/recycle stations around the Bowl to help with recycling and, where possible, incorrect material was removed from the recycling bins.

“The rubbish management started much earlier though, through discussions with the food vendor about how to minimise waste right from the start,” says Ms Mills.

“We’ll continue to work closely with vendors as we move toward the All Blacks test and the Rugby World Cup so that we can reduce the amount of waste created in the first place, and also increase the amount of material we recycle overall.”