In January, our company proudly provided waste collection services at the Chevron Houston Marathon. We bring this up because it is a common misconception that an outdoor event such as a marathon, fair, or concert only needs portable toilets and carefully-placed trash bins. However, event planners for these types of events need to focus on event waste management.
Outdoor events and other types of events that bring a large crowd produce a lot of waste. Not just consumer waste. The most important type of waste to manage is produced during event set-up, operation, and tear down:
- Large boxes to store or transport heavy equipment
- Excess staging or scaffolding material
- Construction-like debris
- Many more types of commercial waste
To keep your event waste managed, consider these three tips to have the right plan to manage the waste produced at your event.
1. Estimate the Size and Scope of the Event
Planning is critical to keep your event waste managed. Weeks or months before the actual event takes place, you should scope out the size of the event to estimate how much waste you can expect to produce.
Large-scale events such as the annual Houston Marathon, the outdoor portion of the Houston Rodeo in the parking lot of NRG Stadium, or a parade through Downtown Houston require careful planning.
- Under-estimating the size of the event could lead to waste piling up, leading to an unpleasant experience for patrons.
- Over-estimating the size of the event could break your budget due to the unnecessary costs incurred.
The same applies to smaller or medium-sized outdoors events on a smaller scale. If you are working with a limited budget for a fundraiser, non-profit event, or church/community fair, you need to take time to estimate the amount of waste you expect to produce.
2. Have a System for Waste Collection During Set-up and Operation
No event from small to large is a one-person operation. Your team — whether 5, 50, or 500 people — needs to understand the process for collecting waste during set-up and as the event is ongoing.
Why is this important? Many event planners have a limited amount of time for set-up in their allocated space. Therefore, your teams need to be efficient collecting waste while setting up the staging area or activity space.
Perhaps you designate a group of team members to be responsible for collecting waste as it’s created. Then, during the event, that same group will continue collecting waste as it’s created.
Having a gameplan is critical to ensure the assigned team members understand the importance of their role, when to collect waste, and how to prepare for discarding the waste.
3. Find Support to Discard the Waste at Your Event
The final tip for keeping your event waste managed is to have an outlet for discarding the waste generated at your event.
Discarding waste is obviously critical for the tear down phase of the event when your teams are trying to efficiently remove the staging or activity area so that you can leave your designated space on-time.
However, discarding waste is also important during the set-up and operation phases. The key is having the optimal roll-off dumpster to support your event.
When you have a proper estimate of the size of your event and your teams understand the system for collecting waste, then you can utilize a roll-off dumpster or multiple roll-off dumpsters to efficiently discard the waste.
Having support for waste removal will provide tremendous cost-savings for your event, plus ensure that you can set up and tear down within your designated timeline.
Work with Gainsborough Waste for Event Waste Management
Gainsborough Waste offers roll-off dumpsters in three sizes that fit small, medium, and large-scale events. We will work your team to coordinate the collection and disposal of waste generated at your event to keep your event clean, in-budget, and on-time.
To discuss your specific event, our Customer Service team is available to take your call at 713-999-6178. You can also provide us with information about your event waste management needs by completing the form on this webpage or emailing [email protected].
