It’s hard to make a 15-day event green when every patron produces about 1.5 kilograms of waste.
But the Australian Open, which expects 1 million attendees this year, is working to reduce its environmental footprint even as it grows.
Matthew Nicholas, director of sustainability at Tennis Australia, with bins at the Australian Open.Credit: Madeleine Heffernan
The Open is now wholly powered by wind farms in western Victoria and 20 per cent of its car fleet is electric. It has reduced players’ single-use water bottle consumption by 99 per cent this year alone and, one day, its racquet string offcuts could be reused in brand-new racquets.
Going green is challenging for a tournament expecting a 10 per cent jump in visitors, particularly when up to 40 per cent of these patrons are there to eat, drink and play rather than watch tennis.
“We run a pop-up event, essentially, in a venue we don’t operate. There’s going to be single-use materials,” said Matthew Nicholas, Tennis Australia’s first director of sustainability.
“If someone comes to the AO, we want to sell them more merch, more meals than last year. Hopefully, at least the landfill per person will be lower.”
Sustainability at Melbourne Park during the 2024 Australian Open.
The Age went on a tour of the Open’s waste systems, starting at one of six waste compounds in the bowels of Melbourne Park. Inside, workers are sorting all the waste into 11 categories, including landfill, soft plastics, glass, polystyrene and organic recycling.
In 2023, about 60 per cent of products were saved from landfill, with more than 300 tonnes recycled, including mixed recycling, kitchen organics, cardboard and crushed glass. “I’m not sure what it will be this year but hopefully higher,” said Nicholas.
Victoria’s new container deposit scheme has been a boon for the Open, with about 500,000 bottles and cans collected for recycling.
The waste compound is also home to huge numbers of racquet string offcuts which are passed on to marine environment not-for-profit Tangaroa Blue, which is trialling recycling materials into sunglasses.
“One day what would be great is strings made from strings,” said Nicholas.
Racquet string offcuts collected at Australian Open will be reused.
The focus is not just waste but reducing single-use plastics. Last year, players consumed 96,000 bottles of water stored in fridges around the tournament. This year, players received four reusable bottles each and refill points were installed everywhere, including courtside.
The shift means players have only drunk 500 bottles of single-use water in 2024. And unlike Wimbledon or the French Open, players drink local water.
The Open has 1200 cleaners working around the clock, reusable cups, bowls and plates, and 25 so-called “Trash Talkers” to help punters responsibly dispose of their rubbish.
So, will the tournament one day be in a position to use recycled or recyclable products only? “It’s a work in progress, definitely,” said Nicholas. “We’re seeing signs of improvement even in the circular design, like using less virgin materials in the site build this year.”
Refill water courtside at the Australian OpenCredit: Madeleine Heffernan
It’s inevitable that Melbourne Park’s green footprint will be compared with that of its neighbour, the MCG, which hosts the city’s biggest football and cricket matches.
But Nicholas said this was not a true comparison, as the Open is a temporary event with temporary buildings. “I like the idea of the metric per patron, which ends up being a kilo and a half per patron,” he said.
But women’s player Victoria Azarenka recently questioned the Open’s environmental commitment.
“We have water bottles that are recycled, but then we have plastic everywhere around, so what are we actually doing?” she told reporters.
“I want to make sure we do something that is important, but like this it looks like… smoke and mirrors. I don’t like that.
“If we’re going to do something important as try to be sustainable, well, OK, let’s actually do that. But if you look at all the things around, we have chocolate individual wrappers all over the stadium.”
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