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.

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!

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.

Sustainable Exhibitor Framework and Awards

At Fieldays 2024 we made a bold commitment that we aim to be single-use-plastic-free (SUPF) by 2027. The Fieldays Sustainable Exhibitor Framework has been created to support Exhibitors in their sustainability efforts at Fieldays to help us reach this goal. To encourage participation, all exhibitors who complete the form will be automatically entered into the Fieldays Sustainability Awards in association with Instep, with two categories to recognise excellence: Small to Medium Business and Large Business.

The Sustainable Exhibitor Framework considers:

Energy Efficiency
Waste Reduction Planning
Sustainable Transportation
Educational Efforts & Accreditation
Sustainable Site Design
Additional Sustainability Efforts

Create awareness for your efforts and help shape the future of sustainability at Fieldays.

How to take part

1. Review the Exhibitor Framework guide. It outlines achievable sustainability goals for Fieldays, helping you consider the actions you’d like to implement. This framework focuses only on your Fieldays operations—not your year-round activities.

2. Complete the Sustainable Exhibitor Framework form.

3. Judges will visit finalists' sites during Fieldays (Wednesday–Friday) to verify and evaluate your efforts.