How to Make Your Event Zero Waste
University events are highly visible and prominent opportunities for engagement with the USC community, including students, staff, faculty, alumni, campus guests and University partners. Hosting zero waste events encourages a culture of sustainability within the USC community while reflecting University values. Zero waste events also support Assignment: Earth goal 4.2.a. Achieve Zero Waste by fiscal year 2028.
What does “Zero Waste” mean?
An event is considered zero waste when at least 90% of the event’s waste is prevented from being sent to the landfill by reducing, recycling, composting and reusing. Find out more about USC’s zero waste plans on the USC Facilities, Planning, and Maintenance website.
The Top Five Ways to Make Your Event Zero Waste
Reusable Foodware
Minimize your waste by providing reusable foodware instead of single-use and disposable utensils, cups, plates, etc. A one-time purchase of reusable items cuts the budget for future events since foodware will not need to be repurchased for every event. Contact USC Hospitality about reusable foodware options.
Utilize compostable foodware when reusable foodware is not feasible. Recyclable foodware must be cleaned before disposal.
Three-Stream Waste Management
Ensure accessibility to three-stream event waste boxes to include compost, recycle, and landfill. Provide signage for each waste stream to educate attendees on how to properly dispose of their waste during the event.
Don’t forget to save and reuse your reusable cardboard waste boxes for future events!
Sustainable Catering
Utilize reusable foodware such as plates, cups and utensils to serve catered meals. Place all food scraps along with compostable foodware into the compost event waste boxes.
Donating food instead of disposing of leftover food lessens waste and also gives back to the community. The Good Samaritan Law protects individuals and organizations from liability when donating food in good faith to nonprofit organizations for the benefit of those in need.
Sustainable Decorations
Avoid single-use decorations that cannot be reused for future events. Think of decorations that can be re-used such as decor that are great for branding.
Signage
Providing sufficient signage for zero waste events is crucial to educating attendees about sustainable practices. Signage can be placed beside the three stream event waste boxes to guide attendees on how to dispose of their waste. Letting attendees know your event is zero waste will make them conscious about sustainable practices.
Additional Zero Waste Tips:
Rethink/Redesign
Swag and giveaways; switch individual serving to family-style catering or hand-held food
Reduce
Food preparation and product purchasing to fit the exact crowd size to avoid waste
Reuse
Refill stations, refillable beverage options, reusable cutlery and foodware
Compost/Recycle
Ensure all single-use items are compostable, and recyclable where unavoidable, ensure compost/recyclable event waste boxes are offered to attendees and back of house preparations
Single-Use Plastic Beverage Bottle Elimination
Single-use plastics are causing global problems — to help address the crisis, USC has eliminated single-use plastic beverage bottles from campus. Since July 2022, our ban on single-use plastic beverage bottles has kept approximately 5 million bottles out of landfills each year. In support of the zero waste goal in Assignment: Earth, we have eliminated single-use plastic beverage bottles by:
- Transitioning to beverage container alternatives including glass and aluminum which can be more sustainably sourced than plastic and have increased recyclability
- Encouraging the use of hydration stations, water coolers/dispensers, and water fountains instead of single-use plastic water bottles
- Help the University community by taking action in your office, in your purchases, and while at cafeterias and events on campus.
Consultation
Please fill out the Zero Waste Events Consultation Form for guidance on hosting zero waste events. A sustainability professional will follow up to guide you on:
- Zero waste foodware selection
- Setting up waste management services
- Tracking event impact
Zero Waste Events Highlights
Green Commencement
Many USC teams are already prioritizing sustainability when hosting events.
For example, the USC Office of Cultural Relations and University Events (CRUE) has committed to hosting Zero Waste Commencement every year since 2020.
During Commencement, CRUE deploys hundreds of event waste boxes dedicated to composting and recycling waste, distributes aluminum (not plastic) water bottles, encourages attendees to refill reusable water bottles at campus hydration stations, and reduces paper waste by printing fewer ceremony programs.
Trojan Family Weekend
Trojan Family Weekend excelled in providing signage for attendees to dispose of waste properly. The signage was visibly appealing and easy to understand allowing for more efficient waste sorting at the three stream event waste boxes. Catering included mostly reusables dishes and where there weren’t, compostable foodware was utilized. There was no plastic in sight! TFW took it a step further and went as far as branding its own customized aluminum water bottles. This was a great deterrence from plastic bottled water. Cassidy and Jai made sure to consult with zero waste experts on campus to ensure the success of this zero waste event.
Salute to Troy
ZW Highlights: Salute to Troy, hosted by USC Athletics, prioritizes zero waste by ensuring accessibility to three stream waste stream with added signage for attendees to understand how to sort their waste. USC Hospitality does a great job utilizing reusable foodware to not only plate but also serve the catered food. Athletics took it a step further to request consultation from the Office of Sustainability and FPM Waste to ensure sustainability practices are prioritized during the production of this event.
