World Environment Day – Reducing single use plastic at Download 2019

The world has seen the impacts of plastic pollution on our oceans – turtles eating plastic, seabirds feeding plastic to chicks and now studies show microplastics in UK rivers which are not only a source of life for otters, freshwater fish and birds like kingfishers but there is growing concern they are becoming plastic waterways pumping pollution through our towns and villages and into our oceans.

Here’s what we’ve put in place to to work towards eliminating single use plastic at the festival. We’re asking Downloaders to please work with us and dispose of what plastic is on site responsibly:

• Please minimise the single use plastic you bring! We encourage you to bring empty sports or metal refillable bottles of any size to refill at the water points inside the arena for free. Plus, you can bring any under 500ml sealed or empty plastic water bottles to refill, these must be sealed and untampered with.
• Plastic cutlery will not be allowed in the main arena
• You are welcome to bring your own refillable bottle to Download to refill at the arena water stations, they are also available for sale in the merch stalls
• All our water bottles will be made from recycled plastic, which supports the UK recycling industry
• All trader soft drinks will be served from cans and decanted into paper cups in the arena
• All bottled alcoholic drinks will be decanted into cups so we can manage the plastic disposal responsibly
• We use reusable cups at the arena bars with a £2 deposit
• All paper cups and bottles in the arena have a 10p deposit included in the price which you can redeem at the refund points in the arena (minimum 10 for £1)
• In the campsite any bottles bought in the Co-op Supermarket can be redeemed for 10p in the Co-op’s instore reverse vending machine
• We have banned single use plastic cutlery and serveware since 2016

Visit our Green page to find out more about all of the ways we’re working towards making Download more sustainable.