If you attended Natural Products Expo West in March – and 65,000 of you did – you undoubtedly saw a huge amount of waste being created. Used paper plates and utensils, leftover food and drinks, not to mention the furnishings that were too costly to take back to your company. That happens at every trade show.
Today (April 22), for Earth Day, the show’s organizer, New Hope Network, reported on the herculean efforts at reducing much of that waste. They said:
- Leftover materials, both food and booth supplies are donated to local non-profits, including Habitat for Humanity and Second Harvest Food Bank. After Expo West 2024, we were able to donate 143,468 lbs. of food/beverage and seven 18-ft. trucks of furniture and materials.
- Thanks to Tetra Pak for sponsoring our waste diversion efforts with back of house waste sorting.
- Through our partnership with R.cup we saved 3,300 single-use cups & eliminated 56 lbs. of CO2.
- Thanks to sponsor, Liquid Death, we saved 21,217 single-use plastic bottles of water from being used at our host hotels by providing canned water instead.
- Thanks to our partner ChicoBag and sponsor Robinson Pharma, we handed out 25,000 show bags made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.
- Our first zero-waste sampling cup program that we piloted at Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace was an immense success. We diverted 137kg of carbon emissions, 680 lbs. of trash and a staggering 5500 single-use sample cups diverted from landfills.
