Eco Festivals: MTN Bushfire greens its fire with compostables

MTN Bushfire is one of Africa’s largest multicultural gatherings. This iconic festival celebrates the transformational power of the arts, while sounding a powerful call to action for positive social and environmental change.

When it comes to environmental stewardship, MTN Bushfire walk their talk with an ambitious, forwarding-thinking approach to waste management that includes compostable packaging and the 3 bin system.

All waste at the festival gets separated and processed appropriately for its waste stream.

All organic (AKA green waste) – including food waste and all compostable packaging – get’s composted (AKA organic recycling). This happens on-site, and the resulting compost is then fed back to nourish venue’s soils and plants. Fantastic!

With over 20,000 festival goers attending annually, this is impressive. And absolutely how it should be done.

Turn your food packaging into soil

GREEN HOME has partnered with MTN Bushfire for the last two years, as Official Compostable Packaging Partner.
Our main focus is the Global Food Village. This hub of culinary sustenance uses our compostable food packaging together with the 3 bin system to create loads of compost, instead of waste. Wooo-hooo!

What’s the 3 bin system, you ask?

Well, as you may have guessed, it’s 3 bins that separate waste into three waste streams:

• Compostable (all organic waste, at a festival this will mostly be food waste and compostable food packaging)
• Recyclable (all the glass, cans , cooking oil, etc.)
• Landfill (everything that can’t be composted or recycled)

Composting is one of the top actions individuals – and large groups of individuals – can take to mitigate their climate impact. At festival scale, this benefit is seriously amplified.

Rocking the 3 Bin System

The 3 bin system engages festival goers and fosters responsibility and awareness. As well as separating waste in streams. For those who already compost at home and understand the enormous benefits, compost bins are a welcome sight.
For those that don’t, hopefully they get inspired by how we can keep in sync with how Nature recycles, and why it’s so important!

Regenerative systems that close the loop on waste are a vibe!

Made from plants!

Plant-based, compostable packaging makes a lot of sense in a festival setting. When it can be collected and composted on site, this both reduces waste, and transport emissions (it doesn’t need to be trucked to a landfill or recycling facility). Compostables have also been shown to increase the amount of food waste that gets composted, which further reduces waste and emissions.

For people at the festival, knowing the packaging they’re using can (and will) return to soil again makes for happy meals, snacks, coffees and drinks.
Plant-based materials feel and look natural (because they are!) and are enjoyable to eat from.

There is also a very wide variety of plant-based compostable products available to suit any festival food service need.

The Green Team

The Green Team make the magic that happens at MTN Bushfire possible. They are the team who implement waste management, and they deserve a massive shout our for achieving full waste separation and successfully managing all the waste streams for over 20K people.

Waste management is a crucial piece to get right at any festival. Handled correctly, it is part of the positive impact a festival can have.

MTN Bushfire represents the kind of world we would all like to see. A global community who unite in a celebration of art, music, creativity and in the spirit of taking action against discrimination, environmental degradation and poverty.

Festivals are fun spaces, but we should never check our sense of environmental and social responsibility at the gate.

A great festival takes responsibility for its impact, and can be a fantastic testing ground for creative solutions, helping to build the sustainable world we know is possible.

When a festival applies green thinking to how it is setup, festival goers can kick back and experience the vibe while remaining true to their values.

Thank you MTN Bushfire!