Transcript: Waste reduction interactive infographic

SOURCING AND SUPPLY

• Partnerships with local farmers and vendors.
• Detailed attendance projections.
• Specialised and limited menu.

Reducing waste starts long before the food hits your plates at the festival, with sourcing and supply.

To reduce waste before the festival even starts, we’ve focused on figuring out how many people will come to the festival and how much food we’re likely to need. This has involved surveys, research into attendance at past festivals, and insights from early ticket sales.

We have partnered with local farmers and food truck vendors to ensure we’ll have the best quality in-season ingredients, and to share information on attendance estimations to ensure the right amount of food is ordered.

Food vendors will serve curated, limited menus, which will not only reduce waste but also lessen our reliance on non-local supplies and avoid having excess food and greater waste. With fewer options, vendors are more likely to sell the food they have rather than needing to discard excess food.

TRANSPORT AND STORAGE

• Local produce.
• Short delivery routes.
• Reusable bulk containers.
• Temperature-controlled storage.

To make sure food doesn’t spoil and go to waste before you can try it, we’ve considered how the food will be transported and stored.

Proper storage, both in transit and at the festival, is crucial to preventing food waste. Having local food providers means there will be less transport time required to get food from point A to B. This means less possibility of it going bad on the way. By taking these steps, we’re able to reduce the amount of food that needs to be thrown out. Additionally, working with providers to ensure the routes their delivery vehicles will take also reduces carbon emissions.

All crates and packaging used to transport and store food will be reusable to reduce plastic waste. And food will be kept in temperature-controlled storage facilities both in transit and at the festival so it stays fresh for as long as possible.

We have ensured that all food truck vendors possess the required licences and permits and follow strict health and safety standards. This includes the frequent maintenance and testing of their storage equipment.

All trucks at the festival are equipped with the necessary temperature-controlled storage to keep food fresh so that it does not spoil. The trucks will be able to maintain this equipment even in the case of a local power outage.

PREPARATION

• Compostable and reusable serving ware.
• Pre-portioned servings.
• Cooked-to-order items.

Our mission to reduce food waste continues. The preparation stage offers plenty of opportunities to make sustainable choices while getting your food ready.

We are working with our food truck vendors and staff to implement various strategies to optimise food preparation. Compostable or reusable cooking and serving ware will be used wherever possible to cut down on the use of plastic waste generated by vendors during the festival.

Vendors will be offering two serving sizes of dishes on their menus. This means that less food will go to waste, as people can opt to order a smaller, cheaper serving.

The limited menu also makes it a lot easier for pre-portioned ingredients to be prepared to ensure that serving sizes are consistent.

Meals will be cooked-to-order in small batches rather than cooked early and left on display for hours. This will mean there will be much less cooked but unconsumed food going in the bin at the end of the day, and leftovers will be in good condition to donate to local food banks.

CONSUMPTION

• Posters to encourage waste mindfulness.
• Clear serving sizes and ingredients listed on menus.
• Compostable take-home containers.
• Clear signs around special bins.

It’s finally time to order your food and dig in! We’ve thought about the things that can reduce waste at this point, too.

Posters will be on display to show attendees the journey of the food they are eating, including the local businesses involved and the effort put into designing the menu. This will raise more awareness of the festival’s sustainability mission.

We will be putting up signs and menus to make attendees aware of the serving sizes and the ingredients in each meal. This will encourage mindfulness when deciding which serving size to choose and hopefully minimise ordering mistakes, as attendees will have a clear idea of what is in the meal they have ordered.

Vendors will also be making attendees aware of optional, compostable take-home containers, which will allow people who can’t finish their food in one sitting to enjoy their leftovers later in the day or at home, rather than throw them away.

DISPOSAL AND REUSE

• Composting, recycling, and reusing waste.
• Disposal areas manned by friendly volunteers.
• Partnerships with waste management advisors, local farms, charities, and the council.

Once you’ve finished your food, you’ll want to dispose of your plates, utensils, and food scraps, and at the end of each day, vendors might have some leftovers. We’ve got it covered!

Clear signage will direct attendees to designated bins where they can recycle items, help us collect plates and utensils for reuse, contribute food scraps for composting, and dispose of general waste. Friendly volunteers will be posted in these areas to help attendees with any questions about how to dispose of their waste and what will happen to it next.

We have partnered with waste management companies to ensure that as little waste as possible ends up in landfills, and we are particularly excited about collaborating with the local council to share compost created from the festival’s food waste. This compost will be used as fertiliser in the Salty Shire public gardens. We will also be delivering food scraps to local farmers for animal feed.

Finally, although we have carefully estimated how much food we’re likely to need, there may still be some leftovers that could serve the community. We have facilitated a partnership with our vendors and two food bank charities. These charities will collect unused produce and unsold meals and distribute them to those in need in the area.