“BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend produced 60 tonnes of rubbish. It took 160 large bins, 300 wheelie bins and 22 skips to collect the waste”
Plastic waste is generated by the festival circuit in astronomical quantities, a lot of recyclable materials are used once or twice then thrown out at the end of a summer. In this post we will look into the various types of plastic people pick up to prepare for their festival season. We’re going to cover what each of us can do to keep down the amount of this waste. Finally we will examine methods for up-cycling broken items.
Types Of Plastic Waste
First we have the childhood picnic offender, the classic plastic cutlery. Next we have cheap, shitty plastic tents that start to break sometimes after the first strong gust of wind tests a strongly pegged tents integrity. Finally plastic drink bottles, one I’ve seen a lot lately is the small 350 ml water bottles that come in a slab. Micro plastics like glitter are also an issue
Of course plastic costume pieces that are worn once and thrown away product a huge amount of plastic waste too.
What Can We Do About It?
Bring reusable bottles and hot coffee cups, bring some metal cutlery and plates. A festival without glitter- microplastics on the land or in waterways is a problem. Crack out the face paints, and plastic free bio-degradable glitter, which is soon to be available here at Ravers Co!
Carnival costumes- Create costumes using second hand/recycled/reusable materials, to avoid buying plastic tat that is worn once and chucked in the bin. Don’t be tempted to get the cheapest tent available, Fork out for a quality tent, and it will last a good while, or a canvas option will last for many years, even if it’s a bit laborious to put up. You’ll easily get 20 years of use out of a good tent – that’s a lot of festivals.
Upcycling Is Brilliant
After eliminating a lot of categories of plastic waste there still will be some that remain. Some items can be repaired, some things can’t. The first course of action is checking if there is some creative, or otherwise ready made solution to a problem. A rip in a tent is not a reason to throw it away, tent patching kits are readily available to purchase from camping stores. We will soon have tent repair kits like this on Ravers Co too, as well as quality tents, and other festival camping gear, and festival emergency kits – like rainwear, and First Aid Kits.
Eventually, however, a plastic tent will be patched up so much and the rest will start to disintegrate, maybe the stitching on the zipper goes. At this point you can see which of the parts still remain in usable condition, and find creative ways to reuse them, like nailing the cut up panels on a frame to seal off an indoor garden area you can then line. Things designed for single use can be upcycled, like soft drink bottles cut up for drip trays, and protective seedling covers. Get creative!
In Conclusion
There is an insane amount of plastic waste generated by a single festival event, countless of which are occurring simultaneously all over the globe. Do what you can to reduce your personal contribution to this epidemic. Start to think of plastic things as a source for materials where you can maximise their ‘difficult’ properties, or their unwillingness to biodegrade to your own advantage by reusing them in different ways . Be conscious, leave no trace, only footprints!
Check out our awesome shop today for loads of great festival and rave gear!
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