MTCC Holds Zero Waste Convention

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) has succeeded in mounting its first large-scale Zero Waste event. The Professional Convention Management Association’s (PCMA) 51st Annual Meeting was held January 7-10, 2007at the MTCC. The convention involved more than 3100 participants from the meeting and convention industry across North America. It was the first time in the PCMA's 50-year history that the event was held outside of the United States.

To meet its self-imposed "Zero Waste Challenge", the MTCC partnered with the PCMA and long-time MTCC supplier Turtle Island Recycling. The event won enthusiastic participation from all and was able to successfully divert from landfill 98.5% of all the waste materials generated, making it an official Zero Waste event.

The MTCC and its partners employed several strategies to make the event a Zero Waste success:

• MTCC substituted recyclable paper products for those formerly made from Styrofoam
• The MTCC removed all the waste bins, leaving only recycling options: paper, mixed drink containers and organic waste
• MTCC staff was fully trained on Zero Waste policies and procedures. Throughout the convention, trained MTCC staff collected, sorted and recycled all used paper products, bottles and cans.
• Staff collected all food and other organic products from the food and beverage functions and either donated to a local food bank or composted.
• To ensure no waste was missed, the MTCC removed its waste compactors and had the loading docks monitored by an independent company, Turtle Island Recycling.
  

A total of 16 metric tonnes of waste materials produced by the convention were captured for recycling and composting, including organics, plastics, paper, metal, glass, textiles, wood and other materials. This saved an estimated 57 trees, 75,000 litres of water, 39,310 kWh of energy, 16,200 litres of oil, 77 kg of air pollutants, and 85 cubic metres of landfill space.

”This represents an enormous leap forward,” explained Vince Quattrociocchi, the MTCC's Vice-President Operations. “A four-day conference of this size typically would generate some 90,000 cans or bottles, 75,000 cups, 87,500 napkins and 62,500 plates.”

The MTCC has a solid record in recycling, which is currently at 64%, and energy conservation (overall average reduction of 40% in the past five years). The building also has an enormous 300,000-square-foot green roof, a partnership with Second Harvest for food leftovers (2,000 lbs. recycled annually), and a variety of other sustainability programs. In addition, the MTCC was the first facility to be on Enwave Energy's Deep Lake Water Cooling system, launched in 2004. The technology provides the Centre's building cooling by using extremely cold water extracted deep from Lake Ontario.

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre is Canada's No.1 trade and convention facility and one of the finest in North America. With more than 2 million square feet of state-of-the-art space, it is considered a world-class, tier-one facility. The MTCC has welcomed more than 39 million visitors and 12,000 events since its opening in 1984. The Centre hosts more than 700 events annually, ranging in size from large international conventions to small local corporate meetings, for groups of 40 to 40,000, generating more than $3 billion in incremental economic benefits to the local economy each year.

For further information: www.mtccc.com; Heather Evans, Marketing Manager, (416)585-8126, hevans@mtccc.com; Vince Quattrociocchi, Vice President, Operations, (416) 585-8238, vquattrociocchi@mtccc.com

(Source: February 2007 WasteWatch)

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