ExCel London which brings some of the world’s biggest events to Newham is making a meal of food waste through its wormery – Britain’s biggest – which swallows up vegetable leftovers from their kitchens, converting it to fertiliser for the green spaces around the dockside building.

The wormery is part of a wide-ranging sustainability and energy-saving programme that includes working with exhibitors to provide greater use of digital energy efficient LED screens and where there is still a need to print, using only sustainable materials.

Some 95 per cent of banners in use around the site are made from a PVC-free substrate that can be upcycled to create a variety of products, from traffic cones to roofing materials, or used as fuel at waste-to-energy plants.

The company’s campaign to cut single-use plastic waste also saw a reduction in the number of plastic bottles used by more than 200,000 in 2019. Other initiatives to reduce the use of plastic include water fountains, removing plastic straws from point-of-sale and introducing discounts for visitors with reusable cups.

To make sure nothing goes to waste, surplus food and furniture, from events, is donated to Community Food Enterprise, who share these with community projects throughout Newham.

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