REQUIREMENT: All cups, plates, and utensils must be certified compostable and a compost bin must be available for their disposal.
RECOMMENDATION: Excessive flyers and individually wrapped candies should be avoided due to the high volume of waste generated.
Events often generate large amounts of waste and can cause overflow in nearby trash cans, and many locations where events are held do not offer recycling or compost. For example, many students hold events in the SRB multipurpose room, MCC lounge, or GSA lounge, and many of these events serve food. All of these venues have a single large trash bin, only the GSA has a smaller recycling bin, and none have a compost bin. Beaches and parks in Isla Vista provide enough trash bins for a small number of daily users with no recycling or compost available, and these bins do not have the capacity needed for a large festival or concert. When events cause overflow, it places a large and unexpected burden on custodial staff. IV Recreation and Parks District will often require evidence that additional waste bins will be provided before approving an event in an Isla Vista park, but all event planners should develop a waste plan to avoid leaving others with extra work.
What you should do:
- Purchase enough compostable cups, plates, utensils, etc. to accommodate any food you are serving from the A.S. Zero Waste Committee compostable products program. You can either pick these up from the Annex yourself or ask A.S. Recycling to bring them to your event (see #2).
- Request waste service from AS Recycling as early as possible in the planning process and no later than 2 weeks before the event. This does cost a small fee, but ASR students will set up bins with signage at the event site and collect all waste and bins when you are finished so you don’t have to worry about transporting anything yourself. You may also order water through this same form, and ask that A.S. Recycling bring your compostable items to the event so you don’t have to pick them up from the Annex yourself.
- Minimize the waste that your event will generate. Instruct your tablers to only give out flyers and other handouts to those who ask for them, and to avoid distributing paper tickets or individually wrapped candy, as these end up being the largest source of litter at most events.