As the size and complexity of an event increases, so too does the potential for impact on the environment (A. Shone, 2001, p 61). Our cities world famous New Years Eve fireworks, with a $6.3 million budget and 7000 kilos of explosive attract more than 1.5 million people to our harbour and produce 56 tones of waste (Sydneymedia.com.au, 2011). With these numbers, surely the awe inspiring event that each of our New Years are centered around, must come at a cost to our environment?
Sustainability is an important aspect of planning any event, but is especially so for such a large-scale event as Sydney’s New Years Eve. Sustainability describes the way we meet our current needs whilst taking care not to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Van der Wagen, 2010, p 62). Sustainable practice involves reducing the amount of resources we use and the waste and emissions we generate.
With all of the planning that goes into the Fireworks, the event should add considerably to Australia’s green house gas emissions. However, the city has planned the event to be carbon neutral (sydneynewyearseve.com, 2011). Sydney’s New Years Eve fireworks are run by the City of Sydney which, as of 2008, is a carbon neutral Council. The Carbon Reduction Institute conducts a yearly carbon audit, calculating emissions and ensuring that they are offset with the purchase of carbon credits. The institute calculates all emissions from the event, including the embodied emissions from the whole supply chain of each item that is purchased by the city for the running of the event (Fan, 2011, p 2). This includes such things as lighting and staff travel right down to soft drink, meat and vegetables used to cater the Children’s Picnic, and the emissions from waste collected and sent to landfill. Offsetting these emissions effectively gives City of Sydney Council a net zero carbon foot print.
By organizing the event this way, the city aims to reduce the impacts of climate change, meet the expectations of the public, show leadership and influence sustainable market practices.
Organising the event to be carbon neutral, whilst also being of great benefit to our environment and its sustainability, also has many other advantages for Sydney:
· This practice is good for the reputation of the council- as our concern, as a public, for the environment and especially in regards to climate change is high, we expect our councils and government to adapt to limit the emissions put out to sustain the environment for future generations.
· It is also good for the reputation of Sydney. Tourism plays an important part in the economy of Sydney & Australia as a whole, with international visitors spending $5.2 billion, and our visitors from other states spending $1.7 billion per year in the Sydney region alone (Tourism NSW, 2010, p 2). With travellers from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, south Korea and Japan indicating high levels of concern for the environment and in particular climate change, to the point that these concerns are likely to effect their holiday planning (Steiner, 2008, p 3), it is important for Sydney to be seen as a green city, which is taking measures to ensure that our environment is cared for, for the future. Being environmentally responsible creates an opportunity to establish a reputation for being “responsible and forward-thinking, a quality more and more customers are paying attention to” (Samuel, 2011). As the “New Years Eve capital of the world” (Clover Moore, 2011), from 160 countries, 1.1 billion people watch our New Years Fireworks and from Australia, 2.6 million more. What better way to show to the world & its travellers that we are an environmentally friendly destination, than the commentary on the televised broadcast watched by so many?
· Keeping a city-wide event carbon neutral demonstrates to other organisations and countries that being green is achievable. This is bound to inspire and encourage others to use sustainable practices, which benefits not just their organisations or countries, but the whole world!
· It’s ethical! – Aiming to do no harm to our environment by contributing to green house gas emissions is the right thing to do!
With the morning after clean up requiring an army of 230 people, 4 large road sweepers, 6 garbage compactors, 4 mechanical footway sweepers and 4 high pressure steam plant cleaners (Cockington, 2003), we would expect that the water used and rubbish collected should deplete our water reserves and significantly add to our land fill.
As Sydney’s landfills are rapidly nearing capacity and are expected to be full by 2016 (Benns, 2010), and the effects that this landfill has on our environment, the waste collected from the New Years Eve party is of concern to Sydney siders.
The main issues we have with landfill & its affect on our environment are:
· Groundwater: Rain falling on landfill, falls to the bottom, bringing with it soluble toxic particles from the rubbish it travels through, this is then called leachate. The leachate can seep through to the water table (which is used during drought), effectively polluting it.
· Gases released from rubbish: includes methane & carbon dioxide. These gases migrate to surrounding property and release unpleasant odours, can cause cancer and can affect the growth of plants (Zhang, Jiansheng Liang & M.H. Wong, 1995).
· Insects, Rodents & Vermin: these are attracted to the landfill and also spread to surrounding properties
For the above reasons, it is difficult and undesired to need to find new landfill sites. The waste produced by the celebrations around the harbour, equaling 56 tonnes last year, would add to the 40,000 tonnes of waste already rapidly filling our landfills per year.
The City of Sydney has placed an emphasis on waste management when planning for New Years Eve. The city plans to recycle an impressive 80% of the waste collected (sydneynewyearseve.com, 2011), reducing the amount contributed to our landfills to just 20% of the 50 + tonnes collected!
This impressive figure should have the effect of not only reducing the amount of waste that the event itself contributes to the landfills, but also encourage others in Sydney to recycle at home to reduce the amount that they contribute to our landfill individually.
Our increasing population has led to water shortages in Sydney. Whilst Sydney siders have had strict water restrictions placed on them and been reminded constantly of the limitations of our water catchment area, holding a party which requires a large scale clean up afterward seems irresponsible and to be undoing much of our hard work. But Sydney will actually be cleaned using 100% recycled water(sydneynewyearseve.com, 2011)!
Emissions from motor vehicles are one of the main sources of green house gas emissions in Sydney. Each litre of petrol used in this way produces 2.7kg of greenhouse gas! These gases were not circulating through our ecosystem before they were burnt as fuel and the effects of this cause one of the average persons main concerns, the green house effect. Imagine the effect on the environment if each of the 1.5 million visitors to our harbour drove!
The City of Sydney is encouraging people to take public transport to get to the harbour for the fireworks. There are extra train and bus services arranged for the day, temporary bus terminals set up and roads in the city will be closed, which will further encourage us to take the train!
Fireworks let off smoke and send dust in to the air which can carry traces of these elements. This dust settles around the crowd and falls onto the harbour and parklands. This gives rise to concern that fireworks could cause health hazards for those watching the display as well as for flora and fauna in the area.
Fireworks can contain the following elements, which can have negative effects on the environment (:
· Aluminium
· Barium
· Carbon
· Calcium
· Chlorine
· Cessium
· Copper
· Iron
· Lithium
· Magnesium
· Sulfur
· Titanium
· Zinc
However, The Environmental Protection Act shows us:
“The chemicals contained in fireworks are relatively harmless, while others are rapidly rendered inert by reactions with seawater. Further, factors such as the water volume and the influence of tidal patterns would rapidly dissipate any residual chemicals released by fireworks. The smoke and particle pollution impacts caused by fireworks are localised, short in duration and on a small scale compared to many other sources of these pollutants, such as motor vehicles.” (Seaton, 2001).
In addition to this, Foti Fireworks, the fireworks contractor for Sydney’s Fireworks will use “low environmental impact fireworks” for the event, which use biodegradable paper and with contents, which leave no trace behind. (Foti, 2010).
In light of the above, I think that it is clear that Sydney City council has made a large effort, whilst planning our New Years party, to ensure that it is a sustainable event. When we watch the fireworks with pride on New Years at what we consider to be the worlds best fireworks display, we should be especially proud because of this.
(Tara)
References:
Benns M, 2010, Waste Solution Left To Rot as Landfill Capacity Runs out, Available: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/waste-solution-left-to-rot-as-landfill-capacity-runs-out-20100320-qn6z.html, accessed 18th December, 2011
Cockington J, 2003, How Sydney Works New Years Cleanup, Available: http://www.rubbishremoval.com.au/news-articles/2003/12/26/how-sydney-works-new-years-cleanup/, accessed 18th December, 2011
The attorney General, 2001, 1564—FIREWORKS POLLUTION, Available: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/la/qala.nsf/ad22cc96ba50555dca257051007aa5c8/ca25708400173f67ca25704a001a79f2?OpenDocument, accessed 18th December, 2011
Wikipedia Article: Fireworks, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireworks, accessed 18th December, 2011
Sydneymedia.com.au, 2010, Sydney New Years Eve Making a Mark Without Lasting Impressions on the Environment, Available: http://www.sydneymedia.com.au/html/4467-sydney-new-years-eve-making-a-mark-without-lasting-impressions-on-the-environment.asp, accessed 18th December, 2011
NSW Transport, 2011, NYE 2011 Transport Guide, Available: http://www.sydneynewyearseve.com/plan-ahead/public-transport, accessed 18th December, 2011
Fan P, 2011, CARBON AUDIT SUMMARY REPORT: June 2011
2010 Sydney New Year’s Eve, Available: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/environment/.../inventory-NYE2010, Accessed 18th December, 2011
Anton S, P Bryne, 2001, Successful Event Management A Practical Handbook, Continuum, London
Van der Wagen L, 2010, Events and Tourism Essentials, Pearson, Frenchs Forest
Sydneynewyearseve.com, 2011, A Carbon Neutral Event, Available: http://www.sydneynewyearseve.com/about/a-carbon-neutral-event, Accessed 18th December, 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment