Sustainability and waste
Be a key player in Fieldays’ sustainability success
Exhibitors play a huge role in the sustainability initiatives behind Fieldays. Your business practices have a immense impact on the success of our sustainability efforts on-site.
Fieldays work closely with Instep™ and Closed Loop™ to ensure we adhere to best practices for ISO 20121 Sustainable Event Management.
What's in it for you
- Brand reputation: Demonstrating a commitment to sustainability can enhance your image, making you more attractive to environmentally conscious consumers.
- Competitive advantage: Showcasing innovative sustainability practices differentiates a business from competitors, making it a preferred choice for eco-conscious customers.
- Recognition: Enter the Fieldays Exhibitor Site Awards: Commitment to Sustainability Award.
Steps to a cleaner, safer Fieldays
Sorting guidelines
Place your items in the correct bins at the nearest waste station. Here’s what goes where:
- General waste: This bin is for items like disposable gloves, plastic types 3, 4, 6, and 7, drink cartons, prohibited serveware and packaging, and dirty recycling.
- Recycling: Please deposit soft plastic bags, clean plastics (1, 2, and 5 only), steel and aluminium cans, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, and glass (sorted by colour and ideally placed in a separate bag to prevent breakage).
- Compostable waste: This bin is for food scraps and approved waste packaging.
Health and safety
Avoid risks: Avoid storing rubbish in boxes behind partitions, as this can attract pests and create fire hazards. Broken glass is a safety risk and cannot be recycled, so please handle it carefully if you have glass recycling bins.
Rubbish and recycling collection
Our waste management crew will circulate the event site throughout the day, emptying bins and helping keep roads clear.
Daily collection: At event close each day, you may leave your sorted waste bags outside your site for collection. Please note: The waste team will not enter the Exhibitors site footprints to empty bins.
Clear 240ltr bin liners
We use clear bin liners in wheelie bins across the site to make sorting easier. When bags reach the waste compound, the transparency helps our sorters quickly identify which bags need opening for sorting and which are landfill-only.
Exhibitors offering catering, barista services, or alcohol will receive 8 bin liners for their on-site bins. Please collect these from Exhibitor Services office on-site.
Your impact
Just a few minutes of sorting each day boosts your sustainability impact and keeps Fieldays safe and eco-friendly!
Eco-friendly design and logistics
- When planning your exhibit, prioritise sustainable materials for both design and packing.
- Choose reusable items—like sturdy cardboard boxes and eco-friendly packing solutions.
- Design signage for easy storage and reuse, reducing waste while enhancing your brand image.
Catering and food management
- Partner with caterers who share your commitment to sustainability.
- Ensure they follow eco-friendly practices and consider donating any surplus food that is still wrapped.
Empower your team
- Train your staff on sustainable practices. See also info on having a Waste Minimisation Plan.
- Make it part of your company culture, so they can represent your brand’s commitment to the environment during the event.
Green travel, delivery and freight
- Travel sustainably by carpooling, choosing low-emission rentals, and offsetting flight emissions.
- Use a low-carbon freight pathway for deliveries to minimise your transportation footprint.
- Ship in bulk, reduce the size of your packaging and limit shipments.
See also Freight, delivery and collection
Suppliers and contractors
Work with all your suppliers—caterers, coffee, and production—to reduce packaging and follow event sustainability guidelines. You might like to utilise our preferred suppliers who are committed to helping make Fieldays as sustainable as possible.
Waste minimisation plan
In the compulsory Site Plan and Hazard Identification/Management Form in the Exhibitor Portal, you will find an optional question about having a Waste Minimisation Plan. While it's not compulsory, we highly recommend having one to help you manage your waste responsibly by reducing what you bring, reusing items where possible, and ensuring proper disposal of any leftover materials.
How to create a waste minimisation plan
- List items you need to bring to the event (e.g., packaging, promotional items). Consider using reusable or recyclable packaging where possible that you can take home with you after the event.
- Identify the items that could generate waste (landfill) and limit single-use items like flyers or plastic.
- Plan to separate waste into recycling, compost, and landfill streams. Label bins clearly at your site. Use event-provided waste stations correctly.
Ensure your team knows how to follow the waste minimisation plan.
| Items needed | Reuse, recycle, compost, landfill | Responsible |
|---|---|---|
| eg. Table cloth x 1 | Reuse | Jack White |
| eg. Plants x 6 | Reuse (donate to a school) | Jack White |
| eg. Bin bags x 4 | Compost | Jen Sharp |
Prohibited serveware and packaging
At the last event, Exhibitors were made aware of restrictions on certain serveware and packaging, in addition to the plastics phased out by the Ministry for the Environment. While we allowed some flexibility previously, compliance will be mandatory for the 2025 event.
This stems from the fact that compostable packaging can compromise the quality of the final compost and harm local ecosystems where it’s used. In New Zealand, there are limited markets for this type of compost, resulting in little demand for processing or upgrading infrastructure. Consequently, many compostable items end up in landfill.
Compostable products are not a perfect solution for reducing plastic waste. For more details on these challenges, please see Compostable products - Ministry for the Environment position statement.
These products are:
| Product | Details |
|---|---|
| Bagasse | This is also known as sugarcane and may contain PFAS |
| Bamboo | Sugarcane is often confused with bamboo. Choose uncoated wooden items instead. |
| PLA | Refers to plastic # 7 made from bio-plastic ie. lined coffee cups, taster cups, chip cups, drink cups etc. |
Previously Banned Plastic Serveware by the New Zealand Government
Alternatives (recommended)
This list is not exhaustive, and we will update it as new information becomes available.
| Product | Details |
|---|---|
| Kraft range | Natural/unbleached/uncoated |
| Palm leaf | Natural/unbleached/uncoated |
| Birchwood | Natural/unbleached/uncoated |
| Wooden | Natural/unbleached/uncoated |
| PET or rPET (1) or PP (5) | Can be recycled in NZ |
| Paper napkins |
Note on uncoated serveware: Be aware that "uncoated" may sometimes refer to the production process, while the final product could still have a clear varnish or coating.
Single-use-plastic-free (SUPF) roadmap
At Fieldays 2024 we made a bold commitment that we aim to be single-use-plastic-free (SUPF) by 2027. Stay tuned for updates, as we'll soon share a roadmap to help you to help us achieve this goal!
Introducing the Sustainable Exhibitor Framework (SEF)
Exciting things are on the horizon! We're currently in the process of designing an evolved version of our previous Sustainability Participant Programme, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Stay tuned!
Share your story with us
Our passionate Sustainability Team would love to hear about your sustainable journey—whether it’s about social, environmental, or economic sustainability. Your story could even be shared with the media to inspire others and highlight what’s possible. Contact us info@nznfs.co.nz
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