Recycle

Recycle is the third principle of the waste hierarchy nd should be considered if there are no other ways for reducing or reusing. To get the most clean material out of the waste to be recycled, it should be collected by type and delivered to the right place.

A thorough recycling system

We have implemented a 6-part waste collection system that includes food waste, paper and cardboard, clean packaging, bottles, cigarette filters and mixed waste. There are about 25 waste collection points on and around the festival area and all the bins are marked accordingly. Later, we sort all the waste into 13-15 different parts in order to get as much clean material as possible. Everything will be taken to the right place, except for cigarette filters and food waste – these get a special treatment.

Cigarette butts

In 2019 we started a series of projects to raise awareness of the pollution caused by cigarette filters. We have tackled the issue with Kops that is gifted to each festival guest. Kops stores a whole pack worth of cigarette filters that can be later disposed of at a special collection point. We use the cigarette filters in different projects, that’s why we collect them separately. In our first attempt in 2019 we collected about 5.1 kg which is about 29, 000 cigarette filters. All of them were used to create our first project – Buttboard, a SUP-board made of cigarette butts.

Fermentation of bio-waste

Food scraps are a valuable resource that should find its way back into nature. Our partner Nutriloopgathers all leftovers from caterers, guests and the team kitchen and uses regenerative Bokashi method to turn them into nutritious fertilisers. These products are used in the I Land Green plant bed to grow produce for next year’s festival. However, there’s no way for us to use all of the fertiliser, so Nutriloop gives most of it to farmers.

Weighing the waste and collecting data

In addition to diligent waste sorting, we also weigh all the collected waste by type and collect the corresponding data. This helps us to get a clear understanding of the impact our activities have and what we could do to make things even better.