Sustainability

Help us remain an environmentally friendly festival

New Beginnings Festival is committed to putting on a sustainable festival and we are doing as much as possible to protect the environment. We need everyone on board to make sure we protect our waterways and leave the environment in a spotless condition.

Read more about sustainability and how you can help below.

We need you onboard!

With the festival so close to such a sensitive environment that is our beautiful Sydney Harbour, we need to be extra vigilant with our waste. Just a breath of wind could blow bottles, cans or other waste into our precious waterways.

Three easy ways to do your bit for the environment at the festival

Thank you for supporting our sustainability strategy and helping look after the environment. Below are three easy steps you can take that will make a big difference:

1. Place your waste in the right bin – Recycling and Organic waste bins will be available at the festival to help us recover the most resources we can and reduce landfill use. Get familiar with what goes in each bin and make sure to place your waste in the right bin so it can be recycled or composted.

2. BYO water bottles, cups, plates and cutlery – Disposable items such as water bottles and coffee cups are used in a few minutes but may remain in the environment for thousands of years. Help reduce plastic pollution and waste by bringing your own reusable items. Water stations will be available for you to refill your bottle as often as you’d like and will help you to save some cash.

   The museum has a store with a range of eco-friendly products if you haven’t got a reusable bottle or coffee cup yet.

3. Always keep an eye on your items - Make sure you know where all your items are at all times to ensure they won’t get blown away with the wind and get carried into our waterways.

Reusable Plates Trial

Join our sustainability initiative with Jamaican Delight and Mundo Institute!

Participate in our reusable plates trial and make a positive impact. If you enjoyed a delicious Jamaican Delight meal, please return your plate so it can be used again!

Benefits:

• Wash and reuse hundreds of plates

• Save natural resources

• Reduce waste, less landfill

Did you know?

• Disposable paper plates take 20 years to decompose in a landfill, while plastic ones can take thousands of years

• Despite concerns about water usage, consider the substantial water footprint in the production of paper or plastic plates

More about our sustainability strategy

Since 2019, New Beginnings Festival has partnered with MUNDO Institute to reduce the festival's environmental footprint and save our planet’s natural resources.

We have implemented recycling and organic waste bins and have achieved a 73 per cent landfill diversion rate. We’ve reduced the festival’s waste by creating guidelines, asking suppliers and partners to commit to reducing the amount of waste coming into the event and by providing environmental education to the festival’s crew and attendees.

Some of the milestones we have achieved since 2019 are:

• 73 per cent landfill diversion

• Recovered and recycled 170kg of drinking containers and 93kg of cardboard

• Recovered and composted 114kg of organics

• Due to composting and recycling, we have saved 3.28 tonnes of CO2e emissions

• By recycling our drinking containers, we have saved approximately 19,500 litres of water

• We have provided environmental education to at least 40 crew members among stallholders, staff members and volunteers

• We have banned single-use plastic items and by doing so we have eliminated the use of at least 6,000 disposable plastic items, such as plastic bags, plates, cutlery and cups

• Engaged our stallholders and managed to switch 100% of the festival’s dishware to compostable

• Engaged 22 volunteers who joined our Dream Green Team and helped spread the seeds of sustainability at the festival

Sustainability is at the core of our festival, and it is an enduring journey we have committed to. We thank you for your help and support!