Reusapalooza!

Guest news contributor FreeTrade Ireland.

More and more festivals are popping up each summer, and at each festival there are piles of rubbish generated, a lot of which is very reusable!

• Use Public Transport – Why not use the public transport available to get there and back if you can! It saves you money and it helps toward reducing your carbon footprint.
• Car-sharing – Why not share a car with your friends instead of driving separately. If doing so make sure your tyres are properly inflated as this helps you to save petrol and reduces co2 emissions.
• Bring everything home – Don’t leave unwanted items at the campsite when it’s all over. I know it can be hard to carry it all and you might not be feeling the best or feeling tired after the weekend, but those items you leave behind need to be disposed of and can end up at landfill. It’s not just environmental costs that result from this; it also hits you in the pocket too. The high costs of disposal and landfilling of these items leads to increased festival prices and you don’t want that now do you!
• Reuse your tent year on year – Make sure to take that tent home with you! Don’t leave it behind; thousands upon thousands of tents are being left behind at festivals each year which are in perfect working order. Reuse it at your next festival or camping expedition or if you don’t think you will, bring it home anyway and pop it up on free trade or donate to your nearest charity shop, it’ll get snapped up!
• Reusable or biodegradable bottles – Bring a reusable bottle and refill at water stations, it saves you buying bottles of water and you play your part in helping reduce the number of plastic bottles being dumped at the event.
• Reusable Mugs – Take advantage of this type of scheme if available at your festival. Some festivals have started providing reusable mugs when you purchased your first drink. You then keep and use it for the duration of the festival and can take home as a souvenir or trade back in.
• Eco Friendly/Biodegradable Toiletries – Staying for the weekend? If so try and use green eco-friendly and biodegradable toiletries that will not have adverse effects on the environment.
• Use Recycling Bins at festivals – Dump your rubbish and packaging in the relevant bins and recycling points at your festival – green bins, brown bins etc.
• Solar Energy/Windup – Use solar energy if available or windup gadgets such as torches or radios! You’ll never have to buy batteries for them or plug them in!

Environmental Initiatives – Take advantage of the environmental initiatives happening at your festival. By doing something good for the environment you get something good back also whether it is a free tea or just that good feeling of having done something good!
Examples of initiatives happening at festivals:

• Free tea for recycling – Bestival

• Every can counts  – Electric Picnic, Body and Soul, and V Festival

• Green Traveller and love the farm leave no trace – Glastonbury

• Love your tent – Isle of Wight Festival

• Body & Soul – Us & You Campsite – Green Campsite

So don’t forget to look in to what green initiatives or aspects there are to the festivals you’ll be attending this year and see how you can get involved!

• July 15, 2019