Green My Plate provides reuse service at events
Reusable plates and bowls at the Australian Open reduced single-use food packaging. Working in hospitality at different events, Jess Fleet was shocked to see the huge amount of waste produced. As a result, in 2020 Jess started Green My Plate to provide a more sustainable service aimed at eliminating single-use food packaging from events.
In February 2022, Green My Plate provided a reuse service for all food served at the Beach House area during the Australian Open tennis tournament.
This reuse service involved providing washable plates and bowls to all food vendors to serve their food on. Once customers finished their meals, they returned the reusable crockery to the designated bins. Green My Plate staff collected the dirty dishes and dropped them at designated washing stations where they were cleaned, dried and redistributed again.
Green My Plate also put the messaging on the plate saying ‘Please return me, I’m not rubbish’. This clear and simple message reduced the risk of plates going into other bins and getting lost.
Customer feedback
For many people, it was their first time encountering a reusable system. Green My Plate ensured that it was a great experience by making everything simple and clear for businesses using the system to serve food and customers using the system to eat.
They received a lot of positive feedback and comments for their work:
“I wanted to send you a message to say you are doing amazing things in this world with your company, Green My Plate. I went to the AO last night and was so impressed that the food stalls were using your products. Also, the people looking after the Beach House area were awesome. So efficient collecting all the bowls/plates."
The impact
Through this system hospitality businesses and patrons enabled 13,078 plates and bowls to be washed and reused at the event, avoiding 2.5 tonnes of waste going to landfill. The Green My Plate team was also able to separate the food and organic waste, composting 1.6 tonnes of this waste and preventing more than 3,040 kilograms of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere.
Benefits of this reuse system include:
- reduced clean-up costs and less waste dispose of to landfill
- food vendors save money by not having to purchase single-use food packaging
- reduced waste management efforts
- simple and effective system that minimises contamination of the bins
- data captured during the event can be used for auditing and can support a compliance requirement
- having sustainability initiatives build customer trust and increase brand reputation.
What’s next?
Since this pilot, Green My Plate has continued to implement reuse models at several events including RISING Melbourne and the Grand Prix. Their ethos 'Make Dishes, Not Waste', is creating much needed environmental awareness and mindfulness around single-use waste.
Their service brings benefits to both small and large events across Australia by removing single-use plates and bowls from the site, and reducing litter and waste ending up in landfills.
The demand for more sustainable events is growing and it’s more important than ever that the events sector leads, as we move away from single-use items and start to choose reusables.
For more information, see Green My Plate.