| dc.description.abstract | Music festivals can gravely impact the environment due to the large amounts of waste they produce. Waste from festivals is usually landfilled or incinerated. These end-of-life options are known to emit a lot of greenhouse gases and produce leachate, a liquid waste product that can heavily pollute groundwater and soil. Moreover, they contribute to resource depletion because the materials that end up dumped or burned can no longer be used, and more virgin material is needed to manufacture new products. This research evaluates the environmental implications of incorporating zero-waste measures in music festivals using case-study data from the festival Bioritme in Catalonia, Spain. The material flows of Bioritme were analyzed with a Material Flow Analysis (MFA), and the environmental impacts were assessed in terms of avoidance of virgin material extraction (with the Zero Waste Index (ZWI)), greenhouse gas emissions (with a Carbon Footprint), and water use (with a Water Footprint). Three scenarios were simulated with zero-waste measures that focused on higher recyclability, sorting, and reuse to compare their environmental performance with the business-as-usual scenario.
The findings suggest that the environmental impact of waste in music festivals can be minimized by switching to reusable products whenever possible and offering only highly recyclable disposables. Moreover, good sorting and the audience's active participation showed to be crucial for zero-waste measures to be successful. The results also revealed that the ZWI fails to address the benefits of waste avoidance, which can be solved by combining it with an MFA. Additionally, we found that a higher ZWI does not always translate into a better environmental performance: a high ZWI indicates low virgin material extraction, but the environmental impact of this extraction could still be very high. Pairing the ZWI with other relevant environmental indicators such as the Carbon and Water Footprints can address this limitation. Both the methodology and the findings of this study can be applied to other types of events that have control over the materials brought in and the waste collected, such as sports events or conferences. | |
