Avalon Market Day praised for commitment to Council’s waste free initiatives

The Avalon Market Day is an excellent example of how a large-scale successful event and their organisers can embrace Council’s philosophy to protect our environment by minimising waste and avoiding the use of harmful single use plastics.

The annual event is the region’s largest community market day drawing over 40,000 visitors to the main street of Avalon Beach village and Dunbar Park playing host to musicians, market stalls gourmet food and carnival rides.

Council’s Waste Minimisation at Functions and Events Policy requires all event organisers to promote and practice waste avoidance principles and increase resource recovery at all public events held on Council property. The Policy and Guidelines ban the distribution of single use plastics including balloons and straws at public events.

Of the 376 stalls only 10 stallholders had minor non-compliance which was easily addressed on the day with information supplied by Council’s Waste Education Team.

A family event is not complete without a show bag and it was great to see the traditional plastic show bag received a revamped paper alternative.

Avalon’s own Green Team – a group of local volunteers conducted an audit of waste collected and discovered that across all items thrown out (except paper/cardboard packaging) there was a significant reduction from 2017. Check out the table below:

Waste Audit Comparison for 2017 and 2018 Market Days

Item

2017

2018

Plastic Bottle

61

17

Glass Bottle

29

2

Soft Plastic Packaging

33

24

Plastic Food Packaging

353

107

Plastic straws

40

5

Paper straws

0

6

Cigarette butt

184

24

Cable ties

0

43

Paper/cardboard packaging

81

131

Sushi Fish

18

19 and 23 lids

Bottle tops

44

13

Aluminum cans

28

10

Generic hard plastic pieces

82

24

Broken glass

16

String

32

Organic waste

7

Metal magnets

32

Well done to another successful Avalon Market Day and to its organisers for being environmentally conscious and adhering to Councils waste minimisation policy.