Have you been working on saving water or managing your food waste? How do you conduct your events without generating a large amount of waste? Here are some tips and extra benefits for you, don’t missed them out:
Water Saving Tips:
1. Install a tap water tap thimbles
You can install a 3 or 4 holes thimble at the aerator of basin and kitchen sink taps or at the end of the flexible hose of these taps or showerheads to reduce the flow of water to your desired flow rates. By limiting the water flow, you can save a lot of water.
2. Reuse your clean tap water
Water used for cleaning vegetables or hand washing is considered clean to reuse for toilet flushing or watering plants. Therefore, put some effort into collecting the used water for reuse purposes as this can help to reduce water usage.
3. Collect rainwater for non-potable use
Rainwater is a gift from nature. Although we cannot use it for drinking purposes, we can always collect rainwater to wash the floor or wash your car. Every drop counts. Therefore we must make use of the rainwater that serves as an alternative water source for our daily life.
***Incentive available:
Penang Rainwater Harvesting Incentive - https://pgc.com.my/2020/prhi/
Food Waste Management Tips:
1. Food composting
The common way of managing food waste is to compost it so that it will biodegrade and turn into fertilisers. Food composting will help to divert our food waste away from landfills, which then reduce our carbon footprint and restore nutrients back to the soil.
2. Enzyme making
Certain food waste can be reused for other purposes, for example citrus fruit skins like orange, lemon and pineapple are good ingredients to make enzymes. We should always maximise the usage of our food waste because these natural resources sometimes have multiple usages. What we need to do is to discover that functions and turn it into a new product!
3. Donate food waste for animal feed
Food left over is not good to be consumed due to health security. However, if we can donate it to people who know how to use it, for example feeding stray or animals from a farm (eg.check out black soldier farm), why not? Our main purpose is to reduce the amount of food waste that will be sent to landfills, therefore feeding animals can be one of the options for food waste management.
***Incentive available:
Food Waste Challeng Incentive - https://pgc.com.my/2020/fwci/
Green Event Planning Tips:
1. Say NO to single use items
One of the most significant waste produced in events is single use items, especially during food fairs or festive events. Perhaps we can be more considerate in our event planning, regardless of big events or just a simple gathering with friends and family. Take the lead to be kind to our environment and Mother Earth by saying NO to single use items especially cutlery and plates. No matter if it is made of plastics or paper, just try your best to reduce waste by encouraging the participants to bring their own reusable and make it a trend that will change the community.
2. Reduce hard copy printing
As most of us are getting used to digital lifestyle especially after Covid-19 and the new norms introduced, e-copy and videos have become a common way to channel messages and also for publicity purposes. Therefore, hardcopy printing is no longer necessary in this new era. For example, wedding invitations in soft-copy, or scanning QR code to download event brochures or pamphlets. Less printing, less waste.
3. Provide water refill stations
As an event organiser, one must be creative and detailed in the planning. By adding sustainable elements in the planning, we will be able to explore more possibilities and provide alternatives to our participants. For example, setting up water stations during sport events like marathons will enable the participants to refill as well as help to reduce the use of single-use mineral bottles. Less waste, less problem.
***Incentive available:
Penang Green Incentive - https://pgc.com.my/2020/pgei/
If you are already doing these, you may apply for the green incentives introduced by Penang Green Council. The application is now open until 31st July 2021. T&Cs applied. Read here for more information: https://pgc.com.my/2020/awards-incentives-ai/