Case study – Cutting waste to landfill at Scotland’s biggest racing fixture
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Edinburgh Mela: Sustainably Celebrating South
Asian Arts and Culture
The Edinburgh Mela: an annual festival of world music, dance, fashion, food and fun.
With over 27,000 visitors throughout the three day event, organisers were keen to
keep waste to a minimum.
The events team, supported by Festivals Edinburgh, used the Resource Management
Planning (RMP) tool to help them benchmark their waste arisings and implement
measures that would reduce waste and improve recycling.
Executive Summary
The Edinburgh Mela event management team used the WRAP Resource Management Planning
(RMP) Tool – available at www.wrap.org.uk/rmp – to identify what wastes were being
produced and to help develop a plan for managing and reducing that waste more efficiently.
This included: a new waste management system on site which provided separate collections at the back
of house for mixed recyclables, general mixed waste, glass waste, food waste and waste cooking oil.
The main achievements included: better engagement with suppliers, and changing waste contractor to
enable the festival to recycle more waste streams.
Future aims include: improve communications to the audience and suppliers about available recycling
facilities, what they should put where, and why.
The objectives of using the tool
The organisers of the annual event had previously not monitored or analysed their waste data, however
they did understand that this was a crucial first step to making improvements. A decision to use the RMP
tool was made so as to help them meet the following key objectives:
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Create a baseline against which they can measure improvement in future years;
Estimate volumes of waste cooking oil and food waste to inform decisions on future waste collection
options;
Identify effective ways to reduce food and food packaging waste from small catering suppliers;
Communicate with suppliers on the environmental aims of the festival; and
Tie the festivals objectives in with requirements of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations.
Success – total waste reduction of 35%
In 2011 the festival produced 9.7 tonnes of waste, compared to the figure of 6.16 tonnes produced in 2012,
a 35% reduction, showed how the RMP tool works towards managing a sustainable event. In total 3.54
tonnes of waste was diverted from landfill – even though the number of stall holders increased from 18 to
26, and the footfall at the festival increased by roughly 500 people.
The event management team also introduced several measures to support an increase of recycling and
composting, including:
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Separate collections back of house for:
 Mixed recyclables (paper, card, plastic bottles, cans);
 General mixed waste (including food contaminated packaging);
 Glass only;
 Food waste; and
 Cooking oil collection service.
Introducing mixed recycling for the audience waste.
However, the high volumes of polystyrene packaging produced on site resulted in high levels of
contamination in all the waste streams. Even though sufficient waste facilities had been provided, it became
clear that this new system was difficult to enforce with limited waste management staff, particularly where
there had been little staff awareness previously on how to best manage the system.
The high level of overall waste reduction still meant the Mela team met some of their objectives, and with
the experience and knowledge gained this year, many lessons have been learned and will help form plans
for next year.
Using the RMP Tool
The RMP Tool is a free online tool for event organisers, venues and suppliers to help reduce waste created
from every stage of the event supply chain. By understanding waste information, and having it all in one
place, event managers can: forecast waste types and volumes, measure reductions in waste to landfill, and
implement actions to reduce overall waste arisings and increase recycling and re-use.
The Mela team focused data gathering on the suppliers who created the most waste: catering and bar
areas. They recruited a student intern to engage and collect data from bar area suppliers and small catering
suppliers.
Through using the toolkit the Mela team:
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Created a full waste profile;
Identified potential cost savings from altering waste management practices;
Identified the need for a new waste contractor who could collect the waste streams the festival was
keen to separate for recycling;
Supported suppliers to identify actions to reduce the potential waste they bring on site; and
Gathered data on what happened at the event in terms of waste collected, recycled and reduced.
The challenges
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Smaller suppliers were very focussed on their day-to-day and often struggled to address waste
issues in the way the festival wanted. To help overcome this, the Mela team invested time to engage
with smaller suppliers and provided guidance to help them use the tool and implement actions.
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The recruitment of the intern proved to be very valuable, and helped make sure suppliers were
engaged and everyone involved had a positive experience. This has now strengthened the festivals
relationship with their suppliers, standing in good stead for future years, and gave the student a
valuable learning opportunity.
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A sustainable packaging initiative was difficult to implement amongst suppliers, mainly because
biodegradable plastic or cardboard packaging is often more expensive than polystyrene. Until cost
effective alternatives are identified this will present a significant barrier for suppliers.
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The Waste (Scotland) Regulations encouraged a drive for sustainable waste management.
Awareness from suppliers proved to be low, meaning the team had to provide guidance on the
forthcoming regulations. They will continue to do so in order to comply by the 2014 deadline.
Top tip: Don’t try to do too much at once….
make improvements one step at a time, so you can focus your
efforts and take your audience and your suppliers with you
Lessons learnt and next steps
After the success of this year, the team has reviewed what could be improved upon for future events:
Separating audience waste at the point of disposal was a major challenge this year.
The Mela team introduced recycling monitors to help visitors use the correct bins to separate waste, but
there was still a high level of contamination of recycling bins from both the audience and from suppliers.
Next Steps: The team intend to use Zero Waste Scotland’s ‘Recycling on the Go’ information to
help to provide better communication to the audience and suppliers (see
www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/recyclingonthego). Improved bin signs and increasing the number of
recycling facilities on site are also in next year’s plans.
Scotland (Waste) Regulations
There was a lack of understanding and awareness of the new waste regulations in Scotland among
suppliers, and their implications. One of the key challenges for Mela is to separate food waste for collection
by 1st January 2014; so they planned to introduce it this year. The Mela team sought support from Zero
Waste Scotland to help them provide guidance to suppliers on the regulations. Unfortunately the
contamination in the bins (largely polystyrene packaging) meant that food waste had to be sent to landfill
instead of composting.
Next Steps: The Mela team will increase this support to their suppliers, and signpost them to other
available support, in order to help the event comply with the new regulations by the 2014 deadline.
It will be important that the ‘why’ is communicated to suppliers as well as the ‘how’. For more
information on the Waste (Scotland) Regulations see www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/content/wastescotland-regulations.
Polystyrene Problems
Polystyrene food containers caused a problem for the Mela Team as so many suppliers used these materials
to serve food in. This left the event with a waste stream that had no feasible outlet for recycling and had to
be thrown away in the general waste.
Next Steps: The Mela Team have decided to impose a ban on polystyrene food containers and non
biodegradable plastics across the festival for 2013. To help the transition, the festival will offer food
traders a discount to offset any additional costs they might incur from the change. The discount will
run for 2013 only, and they hope to attract sponsorship to help fund the packaging initiative.
Find out how the RMP tool could help your organisation improve waste management
A good waste management plan can save your organisation costs, cut your carbon emissions and help
comply with environmental standards like ISO20121. Using the RMP tool will give you the knowledge you
need to make your plan. See http://rmp.wrap.org.uk/for further information.