By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
A Gloucestershire music festival has been praised for achieving almost 80 per cent recycling.
Chalfest, a “unique” not for profit event which aims to promote a real sense of community identity in Chalford and Eastcombe near Stroud has been lauded for its efforts in reducing landfill waste.
This year the event managed to divert just under 80 per cent of its waste from going to landfill and it was instead recycled.
Organisers say they achieved this thanks to pickers and local volunteers sorting litter on the day as well as traders and festival goers using the right bins.
With Grist Environmental Ltd capturing any remaining waste. The use of reusable cups and salvaged lost property helped push that number up.
Connor Bryant, a circular economy entrepreneur and co-founder of Rubbish Ideas, praised the festival online.
“It would be fair to highlight that Chalfest is a two day event with no camping and a max capacity of 7,500 attendees. But regardless this is a great achievement,” he said.
“This proves something big: we could achieve 90 per cent plus recycling rates at events and it doesn’t require some magic new technology, just a good system and the right partners.”
Tricia Watson, A Green Party councillor who represents Chalford at Stroud District Council, was extremely pleased with the recycling efforts at Chalfest.
“I’m delighted our volunteer-led, community founded festival continues to do so much better than bigger budget events on taking our waste seriously,” she said.
“80 per cent recycling with no high tech intervention is a welcome contrast to this week’s release of national recycling results, still stumbling around below 50 per cent.
“Back to basics and reuse first is so often the answer!”