This year BLOODSTOCK is taking part in the 'Drastic on Plastic' campaign, a pledge we're supporting alongside 60 other independent festivals to try and rid festivals of non recycleable plastics within the next 3 years. For 24hrs this Sunday 22nd April, 'Earth Day', we will re-skin our website 'wrapping it in plastic' to help raise awareness, inform with some facts and offer information about the campaign.
As a festival catering to a large younger demographic, we've a duty of care to lead by example and promote the importance of not using plastic at festivals. This year we're opting in to the 'Final Straw' initiative, ridding the festival of plastic straws, meaning none of our bars or retailers are permitted to use these on site. Moving forward we aim to stop the use of single-use plastics on site by 2021, this will include plastic bar cups and drink bottles.
It is estimated that around 8.5 billion plastic straws are thrown away in the UK alone each year, adding further to the 150 million tonnes of plastic waste current floating around the Earth's oceans. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicts that by 2050 there will be more plastic items in the world's oceans than fish. Already each year around one million birds and 100,000 sea mammals die due to eating or becoming entangled in plastic waste.
Earlier this week the British government announced plans to ban the sale of plastic straws, drink stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds in England entirely. The ban is part of the government's 25 year plan to eliminate avoidable plastic waste, and follows the mandatory 5p charge placed on single-use carrier bags in shops and the ban on plastic microbeads. It's estimated that the UK uses 38.5 million plastic bottles a day, a shocking 91% of which are non-recyclable.
Please support us in this endeavour by being more mindful of the single use plastics you bring on to site and perhaps think about purchasing reusable steel containers for your consumables. Every little helps!
