Sadie Fox, Rhiannon Moore, Sheila Molloy
Coast Waste Management Association
The Journey Towards a Zero-Waste Event
Nobody starts out knowing exactly how to run a zero-waste event. The people you will hear from in this great session figured it out at their own events — trying things, watching what happened, adjusting the next year. Others have spent years helping organizers across the region do the same.
Come learn how the journey actually goes, and how to get started — the reusable dishes, the sorting stations, the conversations with food vendors, the volunteer shifts that make or break the day. You'll get real numbers from real events, including the parts that didn't work the first time.
Bring questions and your own story. Whatever you've tried at your fair — the wins and the parts that fell apart — this is the session to talk about it.
The Session Presenters
Heather MacLeod is the founder of BC Crab Co. and producer of BC CrabFest, a zero-waste seafood festival celebrating BC Dungeness crab, commercial fishing, and West Coast culture. Based in Victoria, Heather works at the intersection of seafood, events, tourism, sustainability, and community development. She brings together fishermen, chefs, businesses, and community partners to strengthen the market for BC seafood, celebrate coastal culture, and create sustainable events that support working waterfront communities.
Tim Scolnick has been studying and working on waste diversion since 2011 when he was developing a waste management plan for a town in southern Alberta. In 2014, he started volunteering to manage waste at music festivals in and around Victoria. Since 2017, he has been leading waste diversion efforts to reduce landfill waste and to increase the collection of compost, and reuse of materials for various Victoria food, sporting, music and arts festivals and events (e.g., Car Free Day YYJ, Crabfest, Canada Day, Cook Street Block Party, Victoria Marathon, Pacific FC soccer, Canada 7’s Rugby, Brewery & The Beast, Phillips Weekender, ArtisTREE Festival, Rifflandia Festival, and Filberg Festival in Comox.
Sadie Fox (they/she) was named Ecopreneur of the Year 2024 (Ecostar Awards) and is the founder of The Sustainable Fox; a consultation service specializing in waste reduction solutions for businesses, households, and events. With The Sustainable Fox’s help, events consistently achieve a landfill diversion rate upward of 95%. Sadie’s expertise in both events and communication stem from their years working professionally in theatre. These days, she identifies primarily as a professional waste gremlin, but still jumps at any opportunity to bring their passion for waste reduction onstage and is currently co-writing an educational puppet show for young audiences with Theatre SKAM. Sadie volunteers as Board Chair for SUPPLY Victoria, a not-for-profit redirecting second hand and unconventional arts/craft materials away from landfill and back to community.
Rhiannon Moore is the Circular Economy Specialist for the City of Victoria, where she leads the implementation of multiple waste reduction initiatives. With over a decade of experience in coordinating sustainability programs, she has spent the past six years advancing Zero Waste Victoria—the City’s award-winning waste reduction strategy aimed at cutting landfilled waste by 50% by 2040. Rhiannon will help set the scene for Zero Waste Events drawing on the City of Victoria and CRD experience.
Sheila Molloy is the Executive Director of the Coast Waste Management Association, a non-profit association of roughly 240 member organizations and over 1400 active members spanning regional districts, municipalities, non-profits, and private-sector waste management professionals across BC. She has spent 7 years working alongside the people who actually reduce and manage the province's waste, recycling, compost, and reusable resources so will bring a province-wide view to this session. Proudly, CWMA’s annual conference with over 330 guests has successfully had Zero Food Waste for three years.