Do you like keeping festival glasses? Here’s why that’s not such a good idea. When you go to a music festival, it’s very common to be given a reusable plastic glass for your drinks. That’s called a deposit glass. You pay a small amount for it (for example, 1 euro), and at the end of the festival, you can return it and get your euro back.
Many people decide not to return it because they keep it as a souvenir or because they like to have a collection of these objects from different festivals. This might seem like a harmless action that most people do, but it’s not! So, let’s see why.
Why is keeping the glasses bad for the planet?
Even though these glasses aren’t thrown away like disposable ones, they’re still made of plastic. If you take it home and never use it again, you’re keeping plastic for no reason.
The best thing about these objects is that they’re made to be used many times. If people return them, the festival can wash them and use them again the next year. That way, they don’t have to make so many new ones, and that helps protect the environment.
An environmental expert who works on these kinds of issues explained that when people take these objects home, it ruins the system. Each of them that isn’t returned is one more that has to be made, and that uses energy and pollutes.
What does the Vieilles Charrues festival do to avoid this problem?
This is one of the biggest festivals in France. It happens every year in a place called Carhaix, and about 70,000 people go each night. Imagine how many glasses are used…
That’s why, for several years now, this festival has made a few decisions to avoid wasting plastic:
- They always use the same design every year. Why? Because if they change the image or color each year, people will want to collect them, and won’t return them.
- If the design is always the same, there’s less reason to collect them, and most of them are returned.
- They wash all of them during the festival, in a kind of special laundry. And not just glasses: also coffee mugs, wine glasses, beer pints, etc.
- They don’t want to be a plastic factory. They’re not interested in making more money by selling new glasses every year just because people want to collect them.
What happens to the ones that are lost or not returned?
Each year, some people take the glasses home and others get broken or too dirty and can’t be reused. When that happens:
- The festival only makes new ones to replace those that were lost or can’t be used anymore.
- Those that are too old or broken are recycled in a special recycling center.
And what do they do with the glasses during the rest of the year?
After the festival, they don’t just store the glasses in a warehouse doing nothing. What they do is:
- They rent them to other festivals or events.
- They also have a special laundry that washes them from other events, like the Interceltic Festival of Lorient.
- They even help associations, local governments, or individuals who have their own glasses and need someone to wash them.
So what’s the best thing you can do?
The best thing to do when you go to a festival with deposit glasses is:
- Return it at the end of the festival
- Get your euro back
- Help that object be reused the next year
That way they don’t need to make another one, there’s less pollution, and less plastic is wasted. And if you have glasses at home from other years, you can bring them to the next festival and use them there, or return them to get your euro back again. It’s not a difficult task and you will be contributing to the environment in a positive way. Will you keep taking festival glasses home after this?