Today is World Earth Day – the perfect moment to take a moment and reflect on our responsibility to minimise our environmental footprint. Getting our recycling plan right is a key part of that commitment, so let’s take a closer look at how we deal with our waste on-site.
We work closely with the monitoring team of EcoFest to put our ambitious Waste Management Plan into practice. As a result, all our efforts contributed to a lower amount of waste per visitor (going from 0,92 kilos in 2021 to 0,74 in 2022).
Some of our actions aimed at reducing waste include:
- The distribution of pocket ashtrays and installing recycled cardboard ashtrays on-site lead to a lot less waste on our grounds. Collected cigarette butts are handed over to WeCircular after the event.
- Crew and volunteers are given a reusable water bottle during their stay on-site.
- Upon entry, campers need to pay a deposit and are given two types of garbage bags to recycle their waste. They receive their deposit when bringing back their bags correctly afterwards. Since 2022, the campsite has had an expanded recycling park.
- Production materials like signage, banners and wooden elements from stages are reused annually. When they are unfit for reuse, we upcycle these materials. For example, we repurposed old flags and banners, turning them into bean bags and beach chairs.
- Some beverage partners already provide their non-alcoholic drinks in 1.5-litre glass bottles (used to fill EcoCups). Now, more will do so – resulting in even fewer cans.
- Introducing reusable KioBox plates at the food court (for all seventeen food trucks), campsite and production zone was another significant improvement. Paradise City has effectively switched to a strict reuse policy in its food and beverage.
- Reusable plates also allowed us to collect food leftovers more effectively. From this summer onwards, we will manage our own compost pile on-site.
- Our Food Truck Agreement aims to minimize the surplus food at every truck. Still, leftover food from the food trucks, campsite kitchen, crew catering and artist village is donated to the non-profit Resto du Coeur.
Going forward, Paradise City will continue to make serious efforts to lower the residual waste per visitor even further. This process starts by identifying where improvements can be made – so monitoring within our own organization and our suppliers will become more rigid and detailed.
Head over to our green page for more details on our green engagement.
