Radical sustainability festival Green Gathering pioneers zero waste initiatives

Don’t be a Mug – Bring Your Own Radical sustainability festival Green Gathering leads the way in the zero-waste movement. Winner of A Greener Festival Award 2017, the festival banned single use plastics, non-compostable disposable serveware and plastic glitter over the last five years. Now the organisers want to go further and reduce use of all disposables. This July The Green Gathering launches its Bring Your Own Mug (#BYOM) campaign, asking festival goers to bring a reusable coffee mug to cut down on single use cups being used on site. For those who forget or can’t carry another thing, the festival will be selling durable, lightweight and gloriously retro enamel camping mugs at cost price. Initiatives to date have included Crock ‘n’ Rock (a fun, volunteer-run crockery hire service); £50 surcharge on caterers using disposables; priority given to cafes using real crockery; on site composting; and creative educational upcycling workshops. The Green Gathering has signed up to Drastic on Plastic, Final Straw and #StirCrazy pledges in solidarity with other events and organisations making sustainable choices for 2018 and beyond. How many times do you have to use a reusable cup for it to be the environmentally friendly option? The RAW Foundation gives the answer as between 2.5 and 14 times, depending what the cups are made from. Twice daily for a week, at the most. The stand out fact from up to date research is that even once washing and transport have been take into consideration, real crockery makes sense. Green Gathering director Em Weirdigan said: “Disposable culture goes against everything The Green Gathering stands for. We have super ethical cafes but they don’t all have the capacity to carry stacks of crockery. Getting on board our Bring Your Own Mug campaign is only a small step beyond carrying a durable water bottle... and it could make a seriously huge impact on the amount of waste a festival creates!” The Green Gathering takes place 2-6 August 2018 in Chepstow, South Wales. Full weekend tickets are £110, under 11s go free. More info:  http://ww.greengathering.org.uk --- Resources:

• A Greener Festival award: http://www.agreenerfestival.com/2017/12/green-gathering-wins
• Drastic on Plastic campaign: https://aiforg.com/drastic-on-plastic/
• Final Straw campaign: http://www.bestival.net/news/the-final-straw
• #StirCrazy campaign: http://www.clearpublicspace.org/stircrazy
• RAW Foundation’s Making Waves campaign: http://rawfoundation.org/making-waves/