Keeping it green
We love festivals, but don’t want our planet to pay; so we work hard to make the festival greener each year. A huge effort is made by our brilliant local Scout group who sort all the festival rubbish BY HAND, so we recycle as much as possible.
3 quick ways you can help
- Sort it: Please put tin cans, plastic bottles and cardboard/ paper into the bins marked recycling. The rest goes into the other bins. Better sorting means less rummaging for our volunteers later. Everyone wins, especially the Scouts! What’s more there’s less chance of us missing anything – so more gets recycled.
- Re use it: Where possible use your drinks cups and all other reusable items more than once.
- Bring your own water bottles: You can fill them up for free. Bringing, and taking home, reusable bags, bottles etc. really helps. Tiny faff, big difference to the planet.
Things we do
100% renewable power: We are proud not to use diesel generators. What’s more thanks to Swanage Town Council and Ecotricity our power comes from 100% renewable sources. That’s less noise, air pollution and carbon emissions.
Cutting single use plastic: Since 2022 our bar has used “Re-Uz” festival cups. Please use your cup all day and return it as you leave. WE return them, Re-Uz wash and send them to another festival. They are made BPA-free and durable enough for multiple festivals. We don’t sell water bottles (there’s water dispensers in the bar to top up your bottle). We don’t even use single use cable ties to hold up signs and lights!
Fewer printed programmes: In recent years, we’ve reduced the number we print by around 50%, improved the website and encourage people to use the online programme where possible. This is a genuine sustainability choice: selling printed programmes helps support the festival financially. Those we do print use FSC-certified paper, sourced from responsibly managed forests and other verified sources.
Separating waste and recyclable material: We spent a lot of time hiding behind the toilets going through the bins (believe me it’s not our favourite job either) to segregate ‘rubbish’ from recycling. The Scouts do an amazing job helping us and you are very welcome to come and help if you like!
Local beer & cider: We choose barrelled beers and ciders rather than bottled drinks wherever possible, reducing packaging waste. Supporting a local brewery and cider farm also helps cut travel miles.
Better loos: We’ve reduced queues and reduced chemical use by separate urinals for men, rather than only having portaloos.
By using Vision for Sustainable Events guidance we’re trying hard to have a better festival, with less waste each year.
What we’re exploring next
We want to keep improving. Planet Purbeck help us, they’re a great local resource and ideas we are looking at include:
- donating a small amount each year to a local environmental cause
- separate aluminium can collection to raise money
- tracking waste and recycling weights each year
- more sustainable toilet options
- ethical banking options for festival funds
Anything else?
If there are other ways you think we could make this a greener festival, we’d love your ideas and help. Email info@swanagefolkfestival.com or tell us at the info tent.