From a roving team of Waste Warriors to clever collaborations with eco-friendly suppliers, 2018 was a standout year for the Noosa Food & Wine Festival for its green initiatives.
This year the Festival run by Tourism Noosa invested in and delivered green initiatives that will now provide a blueprint for other festivals in Noosa wanting to be eco-friendly and significantly reduce their environmental footprint.
Through the implementation of these green initiatives 18.3-tonnes of waste was recycled and composted, saving 15-tonnes of general waste. This is the equivalent of more than half the waste being recycled.
To achieve these impressive results, the Festival partnered with Plastic Free Noosa to introduce a roving team of Waste Warriors, who worked hard to sort the rubbish into compostable and general waste to ensure best practice in waste disposal.
Festival director Alesha Gooderham said respecting the environment was a core value of the Festival and green initiatives were an important part of operations and planning.
“We will continue to work with Plastic Free Noosa and share our learnings to support other Noosa events,” she said.
Initiatives instigated throughout the festival included a ban on plastic straws throughout the Festival Village which was supported by a social media campaign called “Sip Don’t Suck” promoting a straw-free festival.
Alesha said every exhibitor in the Festival Village was provided with a guideline of fully compostable products for use on their stall. From food containers to napkins and service cutlery, the festival team negotiated a special exhibitor rate on supplies to encourage and support the switch to fully bio-degradable items.
A team of volunteer Waste Warriors were on hand throughout the Festival, stationed at the 30 bins to help educate visitors on how best to dispose of their waste. This initiative was combined with a dedicated back-of-house area where staff could sort rubbish by hand to limit contamination of compostable waste.
The festival also invested in 12,000 recyclable, polycarbonate glasses to remove single-use plastic glassware and a cashless payment system was introduced to remove paper ticket stubs.
The effects of the green focus and the relationships built throughout the festival have been ongoing with venues such as Bistro C determined to extend their commitment to reducing waste.
When the restaurant recently closed for refurbishment, Bistro C’s fresh ingredients were donated to OzHarvest.
OzHarvest’s Michele Lipner said the donation was due to “a great partnership with great results”.
“Noosa Food & Wine 2018 may be over, but it’s a gift…that keeps giving,” she said.
Michele highlighted fundraising efforts from Bistro C and also Wasabi Restaurant and Bar, saying their valuable contribution means OzHarvest have been able to deliver almost 10,000 meals to people in need.
