25 signatures reached
To: Rt Hon John Whittingdale MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Phase out single-use plastic at events
Instigate legislation to phase out the use of single-use plastic (in particular, cups) at music and sporting events by 2020, to dramatically reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfill.
Why is this important?
Ever had that feeling at the end of a gig or festival when you see the ground strewn with hundreds of crumpled plastic cups that it shouldn't be this way..?
Ever been frustrated that every time you go to the bar, they give you a new cup, whether you like it or not..?
It doesn't have to be this way...
Every year UK music venues, festivals and sporting events collectively send millions - maybe even billions (there are no figures kept, unsurprisingly) - of plastic cups to landfill needlessly. Cups made in a far-away factory, transported long distances, only to ever be used once, for just a few minutes, before being thrown away, but which will remain in landfill sites for hundreds of years.
A 2013 study found that one in six fish in UK waters contained plastics in their bodies.
Every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists as it takes 500 years for plastics to break down.
The good news is that in the past year, many progressive venues and organisations, including Glastonbury Festival, Primavera Festival and The Oval Cricket Ground, have either gone plastic-free or started to introduce re-usable cup schemes, in an effort to reduce waste.
There's no reason every other music and sporting event can't follow suit, and put an end to the great plastic waste madness, which has ultimately led to the Great Pacific garbage patch and even a prediction that (by weight) there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050.
If venues and festival organisers won't do it voluntarily, then there must be legislation to help them do the right thing. We therefore demand, by law, a complete phasing out of single-use plastic at all major UK venues and events by 2020.
