Approximately 2500 people gathered on Sunday the 15th of December 2019 to celebrate South African food and culture at the Kiwi Miele Festival followed by a musical performance of South African duo, Jay and Leanie May in the Queen Elizebeth gymnasium.
The event Started at 11 and featured a wide range of vendors who used a wide range of compostable serve ware. P.L.A compostable plastic had to be separated out into the landfill as its not accepted at the industrial composter.
The selection of food was fantastic. I had a beautiful Prego roll mid afternoon with free range chicken and a spicy onion tomato sauce. The market really smelled great from afar.
A sad reality with entry wristbands is the small plastic strip that gets peeled off before being applied. This landfill item ended up in most other bins and was very difficult to clear from the wrong bins and from the event grounds. The crowd can be highly commended for their activeness in the bringing trash to the bins and leaving the space tidy.
We managed to prevent three quarters of the event waste from going to landfill.
From the 84.4kgs of total waste, 34.4 was composted locally.
26.4kg of mixed recycling included 7.8 kg of aluminium cans. Scrap metal recyclers will take aluminium at 70-90 cents per kg so although it seems like only a little money, getting cash for sorted waste is good business. It was also very pleasing to see many users find the correct bin without too much hesitation.
75% is not a bad diversion rate but I want better and know it can be achieved.
The event organisers were fantastic to work with and I look forward to working together again in the future!
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