ANZ Stadium, one of Sydney largest sporting venues, has the capacity to seat 80,000 spectators at a time. Originally built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the Stadium now plays an important role in Sydney’s sporting culture, and was the first Sydney venue to own a full time Closed Loop program.
Alongside the stadium’s on-site water tanks that recycle rain water to flush toilets and irrigate the pitch, the use of energy efficient lighting, power and air conditioning, the stadium wanted a packaging and recycling program that would capture all of the food packaging waste generated by the spectators.
The ANZ Stadium Closed Loop program involves the provision of recyclable packaging to ANZ Stadium caterers, recycling education programs and Closed Loop bins placed in public locations and back-of-house areas to capture recyclable and organic food waste.
Closed Loop has worked closely with ANZ Stadium’s Catering Manager to ensure that only recyclable food and beverage packaging are used to serve meals and drinks. This packaging is then captured by the Closed Loop recycling bins located throughout the stadium and recycled into new end-use products.
All patrons and staff have access to hundreds of Closed Loop bins located in public areas and back of house areas.
The stadium’s switch to recyclable packaging could divert up to 150 tonnes of waste from landfill by the end of this year. This will equate to saving approximately 2.3 million litres of water, taking 18 cars permanently off the road, and 120 households switching off their electricity for a year.