A major issue festivals face around the country, and world, is how they too can lower their impact on the environment.
This year, Riverboats Music Festival is taking the first steps in reaching an overall goal of becoming carbon neutral.
Festival director David Frazer is thrilled his festival is taking these measures.
‘‘I’d like to think in the short-term we can really reduce our footprint on this precious planet of ours, I’d love to think that ultimately we could go waste-free,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re working with the shire to potentially have green waste bins at the event next year so all our food waste, containers and glass from the bars can be composted and used locally. And then ultimately to go carbon neutral.
‘‘We have one opportunity a year to deliver an event that is minimal in impact. We’re constantly trying to improve and make little tweaks.’’
Riverboats has partnered with Green Music Australia, taking many steps to ensure waste is significantly reduced at this weekend’s event.
From 2019 onwards, Riverboats will no longer sell single-use plastic bottles from any bars or food outlets. People are encouraged to bring along their own reusable bottle and use the refill stations.
If you forget a water bottle, reusable water bottles can be hired from the refill-not-landfill bottle library at a low price, with 100 per cent of profits raised going back into greening the music scene. To encourage festival-goers to bring their own coffee cups, 50 cents will be taken off the price of coffee purchases when a BYO cup is used. Branded cups from CLRS or the Riverboats merchandise tent will also be available to buy. All food containers, cups and disposable wine glasses sold on-site are made from bioplastics, sugarcane, or paper sourced from managed plantations, so they can be commercially composted.
Riverboats is also working with Campaspe Shire on a longer-term strategy to provide on-site compost bins to handle biodegradable containers and food waste. In the meantime, all food containers and disposable glassware can be placed in the red waste bins. Compostable rubbish bags are available from the main entrance gate.
Echuca-Moama Community Projects has also installed CanCrush units across the festival site.