Last year the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) approached PCMA to host a Zero Waste meeting, focusing on waste management.
The PCMA convention last January involved more than 3,100 attendees from across North America and successfully diverted from landfills 98.5 percent of all the waste materials generated during the event, making it an official Zero Waste event.
Estimates are that over 17 tons of waste materials produced by the convention were captured for recycling and composting, including organics, plastics, paper, metal, glass, textiles, wood, and other materials, saving 57 trees, nearly 20,000 gallons of water and over 4,000 gallons of oil.
“Definitely our role is to try to reduce the waste we put out,” says Kelly Peacy, vice president of meetings and events for PCMA. “We want to educate planners and demonstrate ways they can take initiatives into their own organizations. The more we educate and the more we demonstrate ‘here’s what you can do’ from our own events, the more they will catch on.”
The MTCC has a recycling rate of 64 percent, and an overall energy reduction rate averaging 40 percent in the past five years. The building also has a 300,000-square-foot green roof, a partnership with Second Harvest for food leftovers (2,000 pounds recycled annually) and a variety of other sustainability programs.
