8 Best Resources to Help You Improve your Amusement Park’s Recycling & Waste Program

This blog has been updated with new resources as of September 2024. Read the newer version here.

For more information on how to build an exceptional recycling program for your amusement park, click here.

With thousands of daily visitors, hundreds of food vendors and unpredictable weather conditions, it can be hard to develop a program that is effective and engages visitors. That’s why we’ve compiled the 8 best reads that will help you improve your amusement park’s recycling program!

Standardize your program, add more recycling stations, reduce contamination—these are all the typical phrases you’ll hear in the recycling community about how to improve diversion rates and reduce costs for your amusement park. Although these practices are tried and true, there are many moving parts to each that makes tackling them successfully a little more difficult—but that’s where you come in!

The team at Busch Systems has put together the following essential list of 8 best resources to help you learn how to run a spectacular attractions recycling & waste management program. Even better, they’re all free!

If you know of some more resources that can help us further educate, please comment below with your suggestions and we’ll add them to the list. And don’t forget to bookmark this page, so you can refer back to it when you’ve got some more time to brush up on your recycling & waste management skills for your park.

1. 1. 1. Sustainability in Theme Parks [Blog]~15 min read. Why should an amusement or theme park care about sustainability? When you’re in the early stages of making changes to your waste management program, it is important to consider why these changes are important, and how you can be as sustainable as possible. Check out this short blog for 5 quick tips on how to improve sustainability within your park while also improving your guest experience.
   1. 1. Amusement Parks Waste Recycling Considerations and Equipment [Webpage]~25 min read. If you’re looking into major changes with your waste and recycling program, this guide is extremely helpful in listing the equipment you will need. It even includes a list of tips and examples of major amusement parks that follow these guidelines.
   1. 1. Public Space Recycling- A Review of Better Practices [Blog]~20 min read. Recycling in any public space can be challenging, it can be extremely difficult to get guests on board with your program. Check out this blog by CIF that outlines 4 important lessons when it comes to implementing a recycling program and how you can effectively communicate your recycling program!
   1. 1. Walt Disney World Environmental Sustainability [Webpage]~25 min read.Disney World in Florida is one of the world’s largest and globally recognized parks, so who better to learn from? Take a look at some of their environmental initiatives, including recycling. They may have some techniques that you can borrow to implement at your park!
   1. 1. Taking Action on Waste Info Sheets [Webpage]~25 min read.WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Plan) in the UK provides a few quick fact sheets to help reduce waste in various sectors, which includes hotels, restaurants and pubs. They are extremely easy reading, and although the numbers are based on UK stats, it still provides some amazing insight that will help address problems within your waste management program, and how to solve them.
   1. 1. How do we address Environmental Sustainability in Entertainment Design? [Blog]~15 min read. This article outlines a number of sustainable ideas and solutions that are attempting to make amusement parks more eco-friendly. If you’re attempting to make your park more sustainable, consider some of these ideas that are being explored at theme parks around the world!
   1. 1. Be the Change You Want to See: Modeling Food Composting in Public Places [Study]~90+ min read. Introducing an organics stream at your park can be extremely challenging, but rewarding. This study included and experiment in which and organics stream was added to a food court, and explores the most effective ways to engage guest participation. It is and excellent resource in thinking beyond bin placement to encourage participation in your waste management program!
   1. 1. Waste Management in Selected National Parks: A Review [Academic Paper]~90+ min read. Although this paper was written about national parks, many aspects of it ring true with amusement parks as well. The review explains the importance of waste management and how to keep public areas clean, while arguing important factors of educating and communicating effective waste management to the public, or your guests.

And there you have it! Plenty of resources to get your journey to sustainable waste management started. We’ll continue to update this page as we see more great information come down the pipe. And again, if you think we’ve missed some more resources, feel free to comment below.

Stay tuned!

For more information on how to build an exceptional recycling program for your attraction, click here.