Sunday March 07, 2004

ExCeL London and its facilities management company, ISS, with service partner Cleanaway, are striving to make ExCeL London into one of the most sustainable exhibition venues in the UK through recycling.

ExCeL London and ISS set sustainability targets for each and every show that takes place at ExCeL London, so that they can be beaten the following year. This started in May 2003 and to date, the Boat Show was the largest recycling volume that has been generated at ExCeL London.

January 2004 saw more than one major record in the Schroders London Boat Show history. As well as having the highest number of visitors with a 47% increase from 2003, it also recycled a record volume of waste. Prior to 2004, all waste from previous Boat Shows was disposed of in landfills or incineration facilities. This year the Boat Show recycled 27 tonnes of waste, including wood, plastic, cardboard, paper and metal - all of which will be turned into reusable products such as playground surfaces, bridleways, footpaths, gardening products etc.

This represents 6% of the total waste produced and meant that £103.00 was raised for the aeo charity, Children in Crisis.

Says Andrew Gallehawk, ISS Contract Manager:"Following the SEXI* drive, we decided that ISS, as the European leader in facilities management, should become a project champion. We teamed up with Cleanaway as our service partner, who are based in Rainham so that we had the potential to recycle wood, paper, cardboard, plastic and metal and to help achieve the goals set in the SEXI report. We are hoping to exceed these expectations so that we can be used as a benchmark and template for other parts of the exhibition industry."

Says Jamie Buchan, ExCeL London Chief Executive: "We are very proud of the achievements that ISS have accomplished over the last few years in helping to make ExCeL London one of the leading venues in terms of sustainability. As a world-class venue, it is very important that we constantly look for ways to set new standards in the exhibition industry. Recycling is one of the ways we are trying to set an industry benchmark and work with organisers to increase the initiatives year on year. The feedback from organisers has been extremely positive."

ExCeL London recycles standard waste - plastic, paper, wood, cardboard and general waste. In addition to the standard recycling streams, other items are recycled if they are produced in significant quantities. For example - The wine fair produced several tonnes of glass that were sent for recycling and both Fox pubs have been supplied with glass recycling banks. Scrap metal from the various ongoing building projects are also sent for recycling.

Next year ISS, ExCeL London and the Boat Show will set a minimum recycling achievement of 15% and working with the aeo will make an ongoing yearly contribution towards Children in Crisis.

Note to Editors

In 2001 the *Sustainable Exhibition Industry Project (SEXI) found that nearly all exhibition industry waste was going to landfill. This was estimated to cost the industry £40million per annum.

The concept of sustainability within the exhibition industry is still a relatively new idea, because there are no points of reference or best practices against which we can compare achievements. Everything that is done at ExCeL London is a new idea.

Looking to the future of a sustainable exhibition environment, there are a whole host of opportunities and challenges. As well as trying to remove waste from a landfill route by developing recycling, we can also look at what we are recycling and see if we can do that better by reusing the waste. E.g. All exhibition waste used to go to landfill or incineration.

Now, the virgin timber is removed and taken to be recycled, MDF sheets and cable reels are reused and glass is further segregated by colour in order for it to be reused by making more glass rather than glass by-products. The ultimate goal is to generate as little waste as possible.