Insidewaste___PREBIND_LR August 2016 | Page 63

ZERO LANDFILL TOWARDS ZERO LANDFILL PROJECT The Towards Zero Landfill project is a goal, process, and a way of thinking that profoundly changes the Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo’s (AWRE) approach to delivering the show. It’s about reducing the impact AWRE has on the environment with the majority of waste produced by the show either recycled or reused. Towards Zero Landfill is an initiative that is aiming to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfill year-on-year. The project is not only about recycling and diverting materials from landfill; it’s also about leading a behavioural shift within the AWRE community. The launch of the project in 2015 ensured that only 10.7% of total waste was sent to landfill compared to 80% in 2014 – a 70% increase on recovering waste and recycling it. After the success of the project launched at AWRE 2015, this initiative is now being rolled out again for AWRE 2016. The goal is to reduce landfill to be only 5% of the total waste; therefore 95% will be recycled, re-used or redirected from going into landfill. To ensure we achieve this, we are doing a number of things including separation of waste on-site, sustainable plant-based packaging, compostable bin bags, fair trade certified coffee and AWRE will offset any waste sent to landfill by planting the necessary number of trees through Fifteen Trees. The long-term strategy of the project is to increase the participation of exhibitors and sponsors, and to source new partners to increasingly minimise AWRE’s carbon footprint year-on-year, ensuring the project is close to zero by 2017. Diversified Communications’ strategy is to implement AWRE’s Towards Zero Landfill project across all events to reduce costs and, most importantly, our carbon footprint as an entire organisation. 18 AWRE.COM.AU