More and more festivals are trying to minimize the amount of single-use plastic waste they produce. Drinks are served in hard cups which hold a deposit, tokens are replaced by cashless payment systems, and lots of caterers are adapting the use of compostable disposables (plates, bowls, coffee cups, cutlery, straws etc.).
Let's take a further look into the disposable side of things. What happens with your sugarcane-based biodegradable plate when you've finished your jaffle or quesadilla in between kickin' it on the dancefloor? Well, hopefully you'll come and toss it directly into our composting machine instead of chucking it on the ground. But if the festival is not working with an on-site composting machine, your plate is most likely to end up in a general waste bin of which the contents will be incinerated, yes, burned. Such a shame, because your biodegradable plate is now being burned instead of turned into useful compost. Why? Because there isn't any waste processing company that is able to take in a monostream of compostable waste from festivals.
This is why we are initiating a pilot for the industrial composting of festival waste in collaboration with LabVlieland, Liquicity Festival and GP-Groot:
1. Liquicity Festival will make sure all caterers at the festival only serve food on compostable tableware.
2. The festival visitors will deposit their waste into compost bins that are set-out over the terrain.
3. SEAVENTS will take the content of these bins for post-seperation to make sure there is no contamination with other waste.
4. GP-Groot will take the bulk load of waste into their processing plant. They are going to test if the waste will be properly composted when added to the pile of general organic household waste.
If this pilot turns out to be successful it could be the instigation of a big shift of waste production and resource recovery within the festival industry. Huge amounts of visitor waste will no longer have to be burned but can be turned into compost to be used by farmers.
It will be worthwhile for festivals to organise visitor waste into a monostream of compostable materials. We hope this will motivate festivals to make the transition to compostable disposables and eliminate all single-use plastics!
SEAVENTS is able to guide festivals through the whole process by dedicated resource coördination. If you would like to know more about our services, please do not hesitate to contact us through hello@seavents.org or +31634250137.
On our way to a circular (festival) society!