Taste of Tasmania: festival supporting the fight agains plastic pollution

Loaves & Fishes Tasmania Loaves & Fishes Tasmania are a charity organisation based in North Western Tasmania who recover food waste and process and repackage it for human consumption. This food is then distributed via charity organisations around the State for in need and vulnerable Tasmanian’s. working with the charity to recover unsold meals and unused goods from food stalls to repurpose and distribute. Single Use Plastic Bottle Ban We have introduced a ban on all single use plastic bottles on-site for this year’s event. This applies to all stallholders as well as staff, crew and contractors. To support this initiative The Taste are increasing the number of drinking water re-fill stations on site and are also selling aluminum drink bottles to the public and providing them for free to all artists. Stallholders will still be able to sell drinks in glass and aluminum, but not plastic. Soft Plastic Recycling In 2019 we will be teaming up with Northern Tasmania based recycling plant Envorinex to reclaim as much of the soft plastic waste on site as possible. Envorinex process multiple streams of soft plastic polymer which they then process into pellets for manufacturing of plastic products. They also produce some end use products in house. The nature of their plant requires all soft plastic to be separated into single polymer streams as they do not have the capacity to sort before processing. We will be strictly managing separation of soft plastic back of house and limiting it to two polymer streams consisting of Pallet Wrap and Shrink Wrap as these have been identified as the highest volume products and easiest to separate to ensure maximum recycling rate. Waste Management Engagement Program The Taste will be engaging a waste management consultant to conduct an engagement program, with a focus on waste stream management by stallholders in back of house bins. This engagement program aims to be a pilot for further developing an understanding of where waste contamination is coming from and engaging with stallholders to better improve practices. In addition to mesures described above, following activities were implemented: Stallholder Education Educating stallholders in how to continually improve on waste management practices is a key component in reducing waste at the event. Information is provided in the stallholder manual, briefing and in regular newsletter updates on ways they can assist us in reducing waste both through smart choices of consumption and through handling of waste and waste separation. In 2019 a stallholder review system will be implemented, and this will include statistics on waste management. Signage Past experience has informed us that poor signage is a contributing factor to waste stream contamination, this is relevant for both public bins and back of house waste areas. With the assistance of reporting conducted in 2017 and experience learned through past events, signage will be improved to better convey information on problematic waste types and how to dispose of them, as well as a general increase in bin signage in back of house areas to avoid confusion. Repurposing of Design Assets To help reduce: our environmental footprint, consumption and waste generation, the Taste will be looking at ways to reuse and repurpose design and site build assets wherever possible. Our Designers will be especially focused on repurposing materials used in past years design installations and make new elements without requiring large amounts of new materials. Vegetable Oil Used vegetable oil for deep frying is collected by stallholders into oil drums. This is then transported to the waste compound where it is decanted into 1000L IBC tanks. Once full, these tanks are collected by Belgrove Distillery where it is converted into biofuel and used as an energy source on the estate for grain production and distilling.