KS Environmental has been recognised for its achievements in sustainability at the Melbourne Cricket Club, last week receiving the MCC Facilities ‘Environmental and Sustainability Award’. MCC Contractors were invited to submit proposals outlining an initiative, programme or procurement measure that had an environmental benefit at the MCG grounds.
KS Environmental have had a longstanding relationship with the MCC, providing waste and recycling services to the venue for many years. A key focus has always been looking into new ways to increase diversion to landfill and introducing innovative recycling initiatives.
Let’s talk food waste
We believe our greatest achievement in sustainability for the MCC has been the introduction of the first commercial food waste (or food organics) collections to facilitate the diversion and recycling of food organics from the MCC venue. KSE partnered MCC to introduce the mixed (commingled) recycling programme which saw recycling from events increase from around 20% to approximately 80% and diverting the Food Organics was fundamental to its success.
The organic waste coming out of the kitchen and catering areas of MCC is taken to an in-vessel temperature controlled processing facility with the product blended and made into a high-grade compost utilised in landscaping and broad-acre farming.
In addition to this programme KS Environmental introduced and supported a turf organics recycling programme from MCC Arena’s activity this further maximised recovery.
In recent years the MCC has successfully diverted further soil & turf by a partnering arrangement with event organisers such as BMX where significant volumes of material have been diverted.
The results of these endeavours across a period of time have had a significant environmental impact:
1. Food Organics Diversion
The programme has been in place in the vicinity of 15 years however KS Environmental has provided MCC statistics since 2011. Across this period the diversion of Food Organics equates to:
- Almost 50,000 x 120 Litre bins
- Approximately 2,000 tonnes of food organic material.
- Savings in CO2-e (Carbon or Methane generation) are significant for food organics with this alone saving in eEmissions of CO2-e in excess of 3,800 tonnes.
- If we converted the CO2-e savings in to ‘Black Balloons’ we would fill the MCG to 70%
2. Turf Organics (660L bins)
Since 2011 we’ve captured a total of 1036 bins or almost 684m3 of material from landfill.
3. Soil from Arena Activity
Since reporting began in 2016 records show a further 1210 tonnes has been captured to reuse avoiding landfill.
KS Environmental is very proud to be the recipient of this award and thanks the MCC for their support. We look forward to working on and implementing further innovative sustainable measures at the MCC in the years to come.