The mess usually left behind after a music festival will be a thing of the past at September’s Yours and Owls, which has pledged to go plastic free this year.
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The two-day festival, where about 9000 people a day will converge on Stuart Park, will be free from single use water bottles, straws, cutlery and food containers
Instead, punters will be asked to buy reusable – and refundable – cups and bottles, and – after the event – rubbish will be sorted into recyclable and compostable piles instead of being sent to landfill.
Organiser Ben Tillman acknowledged this new green push may be “challenging” in its first year, but was unapologetic about the slight inconveniences it will bring.
“It’s about education,” he said.
“If people don’t like that they have to spend an extra five minutes learning a new process, maybe they shouldn’t be coming to the festival.
“We feel the festival is such a positive thing to have in the community, and it’s important that we minimise any negative impact we might have.
“The rubbish and environmental effects was something that really stood out.”
Mr Tillman said it had been hard to find a company willing to deal with waste from the festival, which meant the efforts to go plastic free would be a huge undertaking for organisers.
“There’s no company that does it, so mostly people just get all the stuff and throw it in the bin and it ends up in landfill,” he said.
“We’ve been working with Plastic Free Wollongong and a bunch of other organisations to just try to figure out a solution. We employed someone to work on this year round to figure it out.”
With success, Yours and Owls have estimated they will eliminate the need for more than 15,000 single use plastic containers.
“We’re limiting the types of single-use plastics that will be able to enter the festival, and we’re changing the bins we use,” he said.
“For the drinks, there will be a reusable cup scheme where you pay a deposit and you can get that back at the end of the day. With the reusable water bottle, you can either keep it or give it back for a refund at the end of the day.”
Also as part of its efforts to leave the festival site untouched, the organisers have also partnered with Wollongong City Council to regenerate part of the nearby Puckeys Estate.
For those who are keen to get their hands dirty by clearing weeds and planting trees on August 16, the organisers are offering up 20 free tickets to their sold out event.
Registrations must be made at https://form.jotform.co/81719400621854 by August 8.