At major events, sustainability isn’t only about how effectively waste is recycled. Increasingly, it’s also about identifying opportunities to prevent materials from becoming waste in the first place.
At All Points East 2026 in Victoria Park, Nu Group has been working alongside LS Events, AEG Presents, A Greener Future and Lancashire Wildlife Trust to find a new use for hessian that would traditionally enter the waste stream following the event.
Hessian is used across the All Points East site to wrap Heras fencing and other temporary event infrastructure. Once the event is over and the site begins to come down, the material has historically reached the end of its event use.
This year, a different route was identified.
During the breakdown, our onsite teams separately collected the hessian as it was removed from the fencing, collating and checking the material to ensure it was suitable for its intended reuse.
In total, six pallets of hessian have been recovered, with existing pallets from the event site also reused to consolidate the material.
Rather than arranging multiple collections, the pallets will be brought together for one onward load to their next destination.
The recovered hessian will be reused within a crop production project, where it will be laid around crops to help suppress weed growth.
It means a material originally brought onto site for a temporary event purpose can continue to provide value long after the event itself has finished.
The process is simple:
Event use → Onsite recovery → Suitability checks → 6 pallets consolidated → One onward load → Reuse in crop production
The initiative has been made possible through collaboration between Nu Group, LS Events, AEG Presents, A Greener Future and Lancashire Wildlife Trust, connecting event operations with an opportunity for practical reuse beyond the site.
For Nu Group, this is an important part of how we want to approach event waste management.
Effective recycling remains essential, but there is also an opportunity to look at materials before they become waste and ask whether another use can be found.
In this case, six pallets of hessian that had finished their job at All Points East will now start another one elsewhere.
It’s a relatively simple change to the traditional process, but one that demonstrates what can be achieved through planning, collaboration and a more circular approach to event resource management.
Nu Group were instrumental in helping us to realise our sustainability ambitions at BBC Radio 2 in the Park this year. From planning through to execution, Paul and his team worked collaboratively with us to develop and deliver a waste management plan that prioritised sustainability and allowed us to achieve industry-leading recycling results.
