You would think 26,000+ people would create a mountain of waste during the City of Cockburn’s Coogee Live festival, but less than 150kg of rubbish was disposed of in landfill after the flagship family event.
About 580kg of recyclable and compostable waste and 32,000+ food containers and cutlery were diverted from landfill thanks to the cooperation of festivalgoers, food vendors and the City’s Waste Education and Events teams.
The event recruited 20 food truck and bar vendors across 18 trading hours which used reusable dishware and cutlery supplied by Go2Cups, or compostable containers.
With the help of waste champions at six waste sorting stations, festivalgoers were able to divert their waste into separate bins for reusable dishes and cutlery for washing, and other items for composting, donation, recycling or general waste.
The stations replaced 80 rubbish and recycling bins usually found along a 1.5km stretch of coast for the festival.
Patrons used more than 32,000 reusable dishes and cutlery, filling 52x120-litre bins and 16 five-litre buckets for washing and reuse across the two days.
Free water stations also helped reduce the purchase of drinks in single-use plastic, enabling people to refill their own reusable bottles.
The City partnered with St Patrick’s Community Support Centre which collected Containers for Change bins.
The proceeds of 2,098 recyclable containers went towards specialist support services for people facing homelessness.
WRITE Solutions collected about 400kg of compostable containers and food waste, filling 15x240-litre bins with raw material for transformation into compost products.
“This means we’re on the right track and that the community is receptive to methods that help them reuse, recover and recycle, and reduce the unnecessary disposal of items in landfill,” Ms Cassou said.
City of Cockburn Head of Library and Cultural Services Brittany Cover said Coogee Live was carbon neutral.
“This means carbon emissions released as a result of the event, from things like patron travel, food consumption and onsite generators, were offset by the City investing in planting mixed native trees and shrubs throughout the state,” Ms Cover said.
Mayor Logan Howlett said the City was one of the first Local Governments in WA to use Go2Cups reusable dishware at its events.
“The City began partnering with Go2Cups in 2018 when we made the courageous decision to remove disposable coffee cups from all its events, saving an estimated 10,000 coffee cups from landfill to date,” Mayor Howlett said.
“Our community should be proud of its ability to adapt to change and embrace more sustainable practises in their everyday lives.”
The City WasteWise Events Policy adheres to the WA Plan for Plastics and the WA Waste Authority’s Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030.
Acknowledgement of Country
WALGA acknowledges the continuing connection of Aboriginal people to Country, culture and community. We embrace the vast Aboriginal cultural diversity throughout Western Australia, including Boorloo (Perth), on the land of the Whadjuk Nyoongar People, where WALGA is located and we acknowledge and pay respect to Elders past and present.