Statement: Poster, ?Recycling, paper and cardboard?, laminated paper, Green Games, Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, made for SOCOG c.2000

Description: Poster, rectangular, laminated, white background. Green text: ?Paper and cardboard?. Black text: ?Blue coloured bin?. Blue rectangular section with white text and 3 boxes images of newspaper, packaging, paper bag, with recycling logo. Black text: ?What goes in here?/ office paper/ cardboard (small quantities only)/ newspaper and magazines/ paper bags?. Red text: ?No soiled paper or cardboard products/ No large quantities of cardboard raise a/ work order to have removed?

Statement of Significance: This notice, featuring the words ?Paper and Cardboard?, is an example of those that appeared on recycling bins at waste stations at the Sydney 2000 Games. Along with three similar notices, this item instructed on the separation of general, recyclable and biodegradable waste at the Games. All four notices were colour-coded to complement corresponding waste bins. Specifically, this notice is a significant record of the Sydney 2000 Integrated Waste Management Solution and, more generally, demonstrates SOCOG?s attempt to deliver the inaugural green Games.

From 1995, SOCOG developed an ambitious environmental agenda to recycle and compost up to 80 per cent of all waste arising from the Sydney 2000 Games. (The remaining 20 per cent would be destined for landfill.) This agenda, called The Sydney 2000 Integrated Waste Management Solution, was part of Sydney?s promise to deliver the first eco-friendly Olympic Games.

The Sydney 2000 Integrated Waste Management Solution was an holistic approach to waste management. Disposable products, ranging from food packaging to building materials, would be recyclable or bio-degradable, and waste management stations (three large, colour-coded bins for the collection of biodegradable and recyclable material) would be installed for public use at all Olympic venues. From here, refuse would be taken to extensive bio-waste facilities or to recycling centres built especially for the Games.

Around 5000 tonnes of waste passed through the Sydney?s Auburn Waste Transfer Station during each week of the Sydney 2000 Games. Recyclable material was then transferred to a waste management centre at Narellan, and compostable material was sent to a second centre at Eastern Creek. The Eastern Creek Waste Management Centre processed an up to 60 tonnes of compost material during each day of the Games. This material was combined with shredded green waste, turned and watered regularly, and left until May 2001 to ferment. It was then screened for non-degradable material, and prepared for sale at horticultural markets in Sydney.

Four Australian companies ? Visy, Cleanevent, Pacific Waste Management, and Waste Services New South Wales ? were the official waste management sponsors and providers at the Sydney 2000 Games. This alliance cleared bins, cleaned Olympic venues, and sorted and delivered waste to transfer stations. In part, its success was due to the easy interpretation of waste management stations, which were simply colour-coded bins and instructional notices and labels.

Designed: Designed by SOCOG.

Made: Made for SOCOG for use at the Sydney 2000 Games

Used: Unused

Owned/Exchanged: Made for and owned by the Olympic Coordination Authority/Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and donated to the Powerhouse Museum after use in the Games.

All contents © copyright 2005 Powerhouse Museum