Have A Clean And Green Big Day Out

Have A Clean And Green Big Day Out

With the BIG DAY OUT just five days away, we thought we should draw attention to the recycling initiatives that are part of the festival’s green initiatives.

A forty strong ECO TEAM of volunteers will be onsite at Mount Smart throughout the day manning the ten recycling stations in the Stadium to work with punters in getting as many recyclables sorted at this point as possible.

The recycling process is fully audited from sorting waste onsite and continues at the recycling depot after the event.

Big Day Out has been running a successful recycling initiative for a number of years now and hopes to achieve up to 80% recyclability across all its entire Australasian run within the next 2 years.

Prior to the 2007 show Big Day Out conducted two energy audits of the show to understand the greenhouse gas emissions caused by our energy usage.

Our first initiative was to reduce our energy use where possible and the second was to make a commitment to “Carbon Offset” the show and as a consequence, Big Day Out began a tree planting programme in 2007.

Big Day Out attendees were also invited to buy a Green Ticket to offset carbon. This year almost five percent of Auckland customers have chosen the option at Ticketmaster to pay $1.60 extra for a Green Ticket, 100% of which is put to growing Mallee Eucalyptus tree plantations in central New South Wales.

The Big Day Out has already planted almost 16,000 Eucalyptus Polybractea (Blue Leaved Mallee). These trees are permanent plantings on farm reserves and produce oxygen and carbon stocks using a sophisticated model developed collaboratively by several leading research agencies, including the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Production Forestry, and is consistent with the technical guidelines provided by the Australian Greenhouse Office. The credit is recouped over a 30 year lifespan of the trees.

Big Day Out’s carbon credit provider is CO2 Australia and they are managing the trees on our behalf.

As we have said before, the reason we have chosen tree plantation for creating carbon credits is because it creates jobs, has sound conservation benefits, reduces soil salinity and improves farm viability in marginal areas as well as converting Greenhouse gas CO2 to oxygen for us to breathe.

THE BIG DAY OUT AUCKLAND

ENDS

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