Stay ‘Til Thursday

Working Together to Reduce the Annual Meeting Footprint on Our Environment

PCMA Initiatives

  • To reduce plastic waste, individual bottled water will not be served at the 2008 PCMA Annual Meeting—all attendees will be provided a reusable water bottle to fill at several water stations located throughout the WSCTC. Attendee water bottles were made possible through the support of PCMA’s Event Partners – VisitBritain, Visit Charlotte, VISIT FLORIDA, Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership, United Airlines, and the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.
  • The 2008 registration bags are made from organic jute and recycled nylon produced by BrandAdvantage. Extra/unwanted bags will be donated to a local charitable organization.
  • All trash cans in the PCMA meeting space will be removed and replaced with recycle bins.
  • All PCMA Annual Meeting printed material will be printed/copied on post-consumer recycled paper.
  • Print on Demand stations for handouts will reduce the paper waste in the concurrent sessions.
  • Plastic name badges will be collected and recycled.
  • All excess food will be donated to a local food rescue program.
  • Food preparation will focus on locally grown produce and feature some organic food items free of environment-harming pesticides.
  • PCMA Partners are encouraged to print on recycled paper and will be printing and shipping a reduced quantity of marketing collateral and amenities to reduce waste.
  • PCMA will collect and store any unused/excess partner collateral as inventory for future events, thus reducing future print requirements. If partner collateral is not reusable, PCMA will recycle it.

The Washington State Convention and Trade Center—Recycle, Reduce, Reuse Initiative

  • An overhaul of the Center’s lighting system was conducted to replace outdated equipment with new and more efficient fixtures.
  • New touchless faucets and self-flushing toilets installed to reduce water consumption.
  • The WSCTC recycling program recycles paper, wood, metal and plastic products. As a result of the recycling initiative, the WSCTC has recycled:
    • 174 tons of cardboard
    • 2,460 lbs of aluminum cans or 79,200 individual pop cans
    • 186 tons of mixed paper, plastic and glass recycled
    • 12 tons of scrap metal were recycled
    • An estimated 8,000 wood pallets were shipped to the WSCTC and sent back with the shipper to be reused
    • All computers and office machines that are updated are recycled
    • All spent fluorescent bulbs and ballasts are recycled
    • All spent AA, AAA and 9V batteries are recycled
    • 3,328 gallons of kitchen grease recycled and reused by a rendering plant
  • Food donation—23,968 meals were sent to local charity this past year.
  • The WSCTC is partnering with a local company to recycle PCMA meeting banners.