Santa Pod Raceway, home to the FIA European Drag Racing Championships, car shows, festivals and public track days, is moving its environmental targets towards the finish line.
It is looking to drive forward its recycling rates and recognises that, with its visitor numbers increasing after the pandemic, a sustainable approach is more important than ever.
Recent initiatives include:
-Working towards eliminating single-use plastic on site;;
-Switching to compostable cutlery and food packaging including straws
-Moving away from selling drinks in single us plastic bottles;
-Switching to paper or woven bags in the onsite retail and merchandise outlets;
-Site ban on polystyrene;
-Locally sourcing stock wherever possible to reduce carbon emissions produced by transportation.
Now it has teamed up with Bedfordshire-based recycling and waste management company Cawleys as it commits to ensuring that the waste generated at its events causes minimal damage to the environment.
Santa Pod’s operations manager Neale Saunders said “Reducing our environmental impact is important to us. With upwards of 400,000 visitors a year all our staff are conscious of the environmental challenges that come with being such a popular venue. Be it our Bug Jam festival or the FIA European Finals Championship, the site needs a clean-up that is as sympathetic to the environment as possible.”
Under the new partnership Santa Pod staff will segregate all cardboard waste on site and glass waste in the licenced bars for recycling. General waste will be collected by Cawleys and processed through its Materials Recycling Facility.
Cawleys will also be on site during popular weekend meetings to highlight the benefits of waste reduction, reuse and recycling to visitors.
Cawleys marketing manager Nicky Severn said: “Working with such an iconic venue as Santa Pod Raceway is very exciting. The organisation’s events are extremely popular and, as with all high footfall sites, waste can be a challenge.
“The solution we have in place will not only help the organisation maximise recycling rates but it will also encourage waste reduction. We will be heavily involved with the team in terms of educating visitors and staff to ensure they understand the importance of recycling.”
