Centre has Plastic Recycling Wrapped Up

By Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia, 5 July, 2013

The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre had its recycling program for this week’s Good Food and Wine Show all wrapped up, thanks to a new system for segregating soft plastics.

Using a new machine at the venue, the Centre’s waste management team isolated soft plastic waste, such as bubble wrap and shrink wrap, at the show and compressed it into bales for recycling.  The end product will be used to make new plastic products.

The Centre’s Waste and Environmental Services Manager William Konya said major events like the Good Food and Wine Show produced significant quantities of soft plastic waste due to the large number of packaged products and pallets wrapped in shrink wrap.

“Over the last few years we’ve observed the volume of soft plastic waste at large shows and decided to engage a waste contractor to research whether it was viable to separate it,” Mr Konya said.

“We found that the amount of waste generated at these events certainly justified the new segregation process.”

Mr Konya said the Good Food and Wine Show produced 350 kilos of soft plastic waste, which had been compressed into 14 bales on site before being collected for recycling.

He said the targeting of soft plastic waste was a logical progression for the Centre’s award-winning waste management program, which has set new standards in the Australian events industry.

Other products recycled at the Good Food and Wine Show (June 28-30) included glass bottles, cardboard boxes, untreated timber pallets, cooking oil and food and organic waste.

Source: Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre