You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Hay Festival reduces plastic and can waste by 75%
Hay Festival has made major sustainability strides including reducing its plastic and can waste by 75% and almost entirely eradicating single-use coffee cups across its site, the festival has claimed.
Following new legislation on workplace recycling which came into force in Wales on April 6th, organisers at the literary festival have worked with suppliers to reduce the use of single-use plastics, placing water refill stations across the site, and introducing reusable coffee and bar glasses. As a result, it has reduced its plastic and can waste by 75% since 2017. Previously the festival was filling around 1,000 wheelie bins with plastic and cans for recycling. Through efforts like reducing single-use plastics, introducing reusable glasses, and banning plastic straws and stirrers, this has decreased to just 254 bins this year.
Andy Fryers, sustainability director at Hay Festival, said: "Since 2007, the festival has implemented various programs to reduce its environmental impact, focusing on its own direct impacts, the impacts of its audience and event programming that provokes discussions on key environmental issues.
"Replacing single-use coffee cups, bar glasses, and water bottles with reusable alternatives significantly minimised our waste across the site. Since 2018, we’ve provided free water refill stations and a reuse system, leading to a 99% reduction in coffee cup waste and the washing and reuse of over 30,000 cups. This change helped us turn a waste problem into a sustainable solution."
The festival also installed a cup wash station to promote reuse, recycled over 200 litres of cooking oil and took excess food to local banks, saving over 500 kg of usable food. The festival now recycles 85% of its overall waste.
Huw Irranca-Davies, cabinet secretary for climate change, said: "Hay Festival is an excellent example of being committed to reducing the amount of waste they create in the first instance, but also making sure they recycle whatever they can. Its success story serves as an inspiration for other businesses and organisations to follow, helping us to achieve a cleaner, greener Wales."
