With the recent debate about the amount of waste Tauranga City is sending to landfill, the city's big events are leading by example through their efforts to better manage waste.

One shining example is The National Jazz Festival where most of the waste generated was successfully diverted from landfill.

The Gourmet Night Markets is one example of an event in Tauranga that is using compostable packaging.

Full resource recovery stations were set up at all of the Jazz Festival locations around the city, being the city centre, the Hurricane Party on the Waterfront and the TECT Jazz Village.

The waste assessment commissioned by The Jazz Festival showed that over 80 per cent of all the rubbish generated at the events was diverted from landfill through composting and recycling.

'The National Jazz Festival team are delighted with an overall diversion rate of 82 per cent during the 2016 Festival,” says Tracy Stockman, administration manager for the 2016 Festival.

'We would like to thank everyone who contributed to this fantastic result, and we look forward to building on this for an even better result for the 55th National Jazz Festival in 2017.”

Non-compostable coffee cups made up the majority of waste from the events held in the city centre, with drink bottles being the main source of recycled waste.

The food on offer obviously went down a treat because there was very little food waste.

Glass and aluminium cans were the main source of waste from the Hurricane Party on the Waterfront, which were separated for recycling.

The food vendors onsite used compostable packaging, meaning it could all be placed in a composting bin.

The food vendors at the TECT Jazz Village also used compostable packaging, which made the sorting much easier.

All of the food vendors at the TECT Jazz Village were positive about using compostable packaging as they are already used to doing this at the other events, such as the Gourmet Night Markets.

'If all food vendors use compostable packaging, it is easier for the public, as they do not have to try and tell the difference between compostable and non-compostable, which can be hard,” says resource, recovery and waste manager Rebecca Maiden.

'This is why Tauranga City Council encourages all event organisers to make it mandatory for their vendors to use certified compostable packaging only.”

Over half of everything we're sending to landfill could be reused, recycled or composted. Council intends to consider taking a more proactive role in solving the city's waste problem which is signalled in the draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan currently open for public submissions.

Actions in the draft Plan support all sectors of the community, including schools, business, events and industry, diverting as much as possible to recycling and composting processes and systems. Submissions can be made by visiting www.tauranga.govt.nz/wasteproblem.