Event planners often want to make sure their venue of choice is making responsible decisions like recycling and conserving resources. A group of NCC staff took a tour this morning of the Con-Serv Industries (CSI) processing center in Sterling, Virginia to see how they exactly sort into single stream recycling. For those that are not familiar with single stream recycling, it is the mixing of all recyclable materials into a single container for collection and processing. Once the container is picked up by CSI, it is brought to the facility in Sterling where the recyclables are sorted and processed prior to shipment to various end-users. In order to accomplish this, the facility utilizes various pieces of machinery and labor to sort the items. Once sorted, the items are bundled for shipment.
It was very impressive machinery, along with a number of employees who separate cardboard, paper, plastic, glass and metal. We walked away with a much better understanding of recycling and now need to move forward to increase our own recycling program from 19% of all waste to a goal of as much as 50% of all waste. What are your biggest type of CSR priorities when planning events?
