Kicking Single-Use Plastic out of Festivals

Summer is here, and so is festival season. We all know festivals and events have the potential to be hotspots for single-use plastic, and we often see in the headlines how much waste they can leave behind.

As part of the SAS five-step to toolkit, our Plastic Free Communities are out there connecting and working with councils, community groups and more…and many choose to work to reduce event and festival plastic waste.

Re-usable Cups

Plastic cups are often essential in festivals for safety, but how do we stop the plastic cups being thrown away or littering our streets by the hundreds at every event? That’s where reusable cup schemes come in.

Remember, it’s not about removing all plastic, but changing the way we use it. Plastic still remains the only option for many festival & event organisers, but turning this into a re-usable option can save a huge amount of plastic being produced, ordered, used and thrown away.

At Golowan Festival in Penzance, they prevent at least 33,000 cups from being thrown away through their cup scheme each year, and pair this with some epic festival cleaning to catch all the bring your own containers bought at local supermarkets.

In Helston, a new cup scheme was trialled in collaboration with the Town Council this year, and the cups we’re so popular they ran out before the event. Many being kept as mementos’ and to be used for next year

Working with Councils

After achieving the Plastic Free Communities motion with their local council, some communities choose to further work with their council to introduce an Events Charter. An Event Charter is a document that outlines an agreement between anyone wanting to hold events within the community, and what their responsibilities on single-use plastics are. It’s a really impactful way to set out expectations and make it clear that single-use is no use.

The charter covers all events, and so the potential for impact for reducing plastic is huge.

In Thatcham, their new events charter launched this year, asks organisers and vendors to refrain from using, providing or selling any items worst offenders plastics from the five-step toolkit.

Providing a platform

This month, Surfers Against Sewage staff and Plastic Free Communities volunteers joined festival goers at Tropical Pressure, specifically to spark conversations and create action around plastic pollution.

Through workshops, placard making, a Million Mile Festival Clean and talks on super charging grassroots community action to national change it was a place where everyone could get informed and involved.

The festival itself is plastic free and is hot on messaging around waste and responsible partying. Making the combination a powerful and fun way to raise awareness and spark action.

Thatcham, Penzance, Helston and many other Plastic Free Communities have shown how tackling single-use plastic during local events and festivals can boost community pride, bring people together to tackle throwaway plastic and change the system that produces it. Check out the Communities Map to see if there’s a community near you, and get in touch to find out what events they have in the pipeline for this summer.