How York Racecourse works hard on their environmental strategy
Aiming to become the best Racecourse in Yorkshire and in the World
About York Racecourse
York Racecourse is a world-class horse racing venue in York with a rich history and the third biggest venue in the country in terms of total prize money offered.
Location: York, North Yorkshire
Industry: Event venues
Services Required:
- General waste collection
- Green waste for their cut grass
- Optimise recycling processes
- Support their Green Knavesmire 300 environmental strategy
Key Takeaways:
- Great relationship between Yorwaste and York Racecourse staff
- Reducing glass waste and replacing with aluminium
- Feeding their cut grass green waste to Yorwaste's compost heap
Behind every race day...
An exciting race day at York Racecourse is underpinned by the work that their facilities team does behind the scenes and this is helped further by Yorwaste.
On a busy race day, there could be up to 20 tonnes of waste waiting to be collected. York Racecourse has been in a long-term partnership with Yorwaste to help prepare and deal with the racing season. Ensuring that race days go smoothly and York Racecourse stays on-track with their environmental strategy.
Challenge 1:
Waste operations in busy racing seasons
For a prestigious site, one of York Racecourse’s concerns is to keep the event space clean and tidy for their visitors. The facilities team works behind the scenes daily to achieve this. But during busy seasons, it could be a challenge to maintain different operations, one after another, while ensuring there would be no disruption to visitors.
Solution:
Close working relationship with waste provider
During the eight years of the working relationship, Yorwaste has developed a deep understanding of York Racecourse’s business. From office staff preparing operation plans to on-site workers collecting waste on event days without disrupting the event. There is great communication from both parties to finish each operation and project.
Having a reliable waste management company has ironed out any issues for York Racecourse. It lessens the potential stress on busy days, and gives them further confidence that visitors will be enjoying a great horse-racing day, no matter what.
I find that if the guys who are actually on the ground are talking to each other, then that’s gold dust for me. And that’s where Yorwaste is a fantastic partner.
Challenge 2:
Even greener recycling processes
Looking for ways to reach their 2040 Net Zero emissions target, York Racecourse reviews their waste management process with Yorwaste to find areas for improvement.
York Racecourse have been producing a small amount of glass waste. While glass is 100% recyclable, there are more energy-efficient recycling processes that can reduce their carbon emissions.
Solution:
Replace glass with aluminium
Compared to glass, aluminium recycling is a more energy efficient process. For example. recycling an aluminium can uses approximately 90% less energy than recycling a glass bottle.
York Racecourse is working on reducing glass waste and replacing it with aluminium where they can. This helps them reduce their carbon emissions and brings them one step closer to their Net Zero emissions target.
We aim to be Net Zero by 2040. Yorwaste forms part of that strategy and we’re working on a number of projects at the moment. I think you can’t do it all on your own. You need good solid partners.
Challenge 3:
Green waste solution for cut grass
Maintaining 100 acres of land, including the racing surface, farmland, lawns and paddocks, is a huge task. Not to mention managing the cut grass waste too.
To stay committed to their Green Knavesmire 300 strategy, York Racecourse needs an appropriate plan for their green waste.
Solution:
Transformed into local compost
Yorwaste has its own compost heaps, fed by the green waste collected around North Yorkshire. York Racecourse’s cut grass is collected and transported to one of Yorwaste’s compost heaps. There, garden waste from around North Yorkshire is composted and transformed into Yorwaste’s own compost brand – Yorganics.
So far, York Racecourse has composted 26,500 kg of cut grass. A great way for York Racecourse to recycle it and help produce compost that goes back to local gardens!
Our aim is to have the best racecourse in the world here at Yorkshire, and Yorwaste shares that vision.