From waste to resource — the story of Huliau Green Events resource collection

1st Is of course is working with vendors and event planners to reduce waste and switch to as many reusables and compostables as possible.

2nd Is Collection — at our waste stations, waste is sorted by guests, guided by waste station attendants into 4–5 bins; Food waste, compostable foodware/unlined paper, recycling and trash. We also sometimes separate out PLA compostable products. These products are certified commercially compostable so while they are better than plastic they can not be composted in a small farm compost system. We separate them out so we can keep data on the amount of potential compostables that go into the landfill.

3rd Is to sort any contaminated waste. It may be an unmanned station, a rouge trash can or food vendors that are too busy to separate it. Whatever the cause, we take those contaminated bins and we sort them out in order to recover as many resources as we can! The more you take the time to separate your waste the less we have to later sort.

4th Step is to weigh EVERYTHING! We weight it all and record it on a data sheet in order to share the success of going Zero Waste!

5th Pose with it. Just kidding. We have to load it all and get it back to our partner farm, Petaloom Floral Co, and recycling to recycling centers.

6th Step. At the Farm, the compostable foodware is shred up in order to make it easier to compost and use as mulch.

7th Step. The foodwaste is mixed with coffee grounds from local cafes, wood chips and some of the paper plates from the event then wet down and covered.

Step 8: The farmer monitors the compost temperature and turns the it when needed. Within a 4 to 6 months the farm has beautiful alive compost to add to the soil. At the farm they grow flowers and food that is sold at the farmers market, through a bouquet subscription and sold to florists.