These trials have involved getting food vendors at the events to use only Council–approved compostable food packaging.
The first trial took place across three large public events in February 2017. The three events included two Council-produced public events - Sparks and Christchurch Lantern Festival - and one partnership trial event with Christchurch Night Noodle Markets.
Before this initiative, all waste from events was most likely sent to landfill. There was no composting stream available citywide for events and even if there were yellow bins at an event, the recycling was too contaminated to be accepted unless hand sorted.
The three events had an estimated 190,000 attendees between them and diverted 12 tonnes of waste – which amounted to a total of 61% of all the waste generated from the three trial events.
Composting Food Packaging at Events (CFPE) - Trial 1.0 summary [PDF, 1.1 MB]
After a successful first trial, the Council then extended the range of compostable food packaging to four suppliers, increasing the range of packaging for the food vendors.
Partway through trial two Council made the decision to take on a sustainability partner as a full provider of both infrastructure and waste sorting services at our events.
The Composting Food Packaging at Events (CFPE) initiative has been viewed as a success by food vendors, event organisers and the wider public. This has changed the landscape of how we produce events in our city.
Although approved composting food packaging for events can be purchased by the public, they must still go in your red bin at home.