CLM diverts 79% of Bay Dreams festival’s waste away from landfill

Facility manger CLM has advised of how, equipped with a waste management plan and a dedicated team, it diverted 79% of leftover waste from January’s Bay Dreams festival away from landfill, beating its record 2020 achievement of 66%.

With Bay Dreams always having aimed to divert waste generated at the event from landfill, for the 2021 festival, waste management was carried out by CLM, which also manages Trafalgar Venues for Nelson City Council

With CLM developing a significant track record in both avoiding and reducing waste at events, Trafalgar Centre Events Co-ordinator Leah Parker says 85.4 cubic metres or just over four tonnes of waste was collected.

Parker advised “only 21% of the waste collected has gone to landfill, the rest is recycling and compost, with food waste going to community compost (and) we’re delighted to have exceeded last year’s record.

“There are always improvements to be made, but we are really happy with the results.”

Pleased to see so little waste go to landfill, Nelson City Council Community and Recreation Committee Chair, Tim Skinner commented “we really applaud the Bay Dreams organisers for continuing to support waste minimisation - events like this have an important role to play in helping everyone lighten their footprint.”

CLM’s waste management plan, which has been in place since October, went into overdrive during the festival, and with help from their partners Can Plan, Waste No More and Onestaff as well as volunteers the majority of waste was either composted or recycled.

Parker’s team of about 80 people, made up of volunteers and temporary staff members, worked throughout the week of the festival ensuring that litter was dealt with, and waste was sorted correctly.

As Parker explains “we sort through every single bin onsite to make sure that recyclable items don’t go to landfill and that non-recyclable items don’t accidentally contaminate batches of recycling.”

To make the job easier, the CLM team created custom sorting tables (see picture), designed to be at the optimal height for sorters, and used a ramp system to make sorting the waste more efficient.

As an additional win for waste reduction, festivalgoers’ tents were also part of the waste minimisation effort, with the majority of tents left behind being recovered for re-use by local fundraising groups and campsites.

The achievements at Bay Dreams built on CLM having transformed waste management at the Trafalgar Centre in 2020 with input from Council’s Rethink Waste programme.

With beverages and food creating the most waste at festivals and events, beer is now sold in easy-to-recycle cans rather than a plastic bottle or cup while food vendors are contracted to serve customers food in compostable packaging.

As Parker added “this is ordinary practice for us now, not just an exception for Bay Dreams. Minimising waste is a focus for all events we have here, it’s just that Bay Dreams is on a different scale.”

Bay Dreams Director, Toby Burrows said it was a great result, concluding “as festival promoters we understand the importance of waste minimisation and diversion from landfill. We are proud to be the market leaders in this area and commend CLM on the amazing role they played in Bay Dreams 2021."