Vinyl Institute Annual Meeting Diverts 98% of Waste

At this year’s Vinyl360 annual meeting, the Vinyl Institute (VI) partnered with GreenCircle Certified, a third-party sustainability verification body, to conduct a waste diversion audit. The VI worked with Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa staff to ensure that as much waste as possible was diverted from landfill, and we’re pleased to share that the meeting diverted nearly 98 percent of all waste.

VI undertook this endeavor in order to better understand and verify the various waste streams and coinciding waste diversion from landfill methods utilized for Vinyl360. During the event, a representative of GreenCircle was onsite validating the quantity and disposal of waste material.

Vinyl360’s biggest waste category was food waste, generating 708 pounds of waste, which was all able to be diverted. The hotel houses an ORCA Food Processor, a machine that allows food scraps to be broken down by chemical and mechanical processes. Through the mechanical crushing and biological digestion by microorganisms, all food waste was processed into wastewater with no solid residuals.

All other waste was either able to be recycled or was landfilled—only 19 pounds of waste had to be landfilled, just a little more than 2 percent of all waste. As for recycling, comingled recycling was collected by WastePro and then transferred to Lee County Waste to be sorted and sold to market.

We were extremely pleased to be able to divert 98 percent of our waste and thank the Hyatt for working so hard to help us achieve this. GreenCircle noted that other ways we could increase our waste diversion to 100 percent in the future would be to discontinue the use of disposable cups and drink napkins—good options to consider for any sort of meeting or conference.

We preach sustainability within our industry, that PVC and vinyl is sustainable, but it’s also important to showcase our commitment to sustainability in all aspects of our business.