Our ECO Story

 
Eco Fee
REUSABLE CUPS & INTRODUCTION ECO FEE SYSTEM

We are once again taking a number of major steps towards a more sustainable festival. We do this so that our festival can continue to exist in harmony with the splendor of its surroundings for decades to come.

In addition to many own initiatives, more and more rules are being imposed by the government in this context. For example, from June 15, events and festivals are obliged to work with reusable cups and PET bottles and cans must be recycled for 95%.

In order to meet these legal requirements, an 'eco fee system' will be used from this edition, or simply put: a deposit.

This system applies to the entire festival site and applies to all drinks ordered at the bars. We are not yet applying the system at the campsite this year, but we are focusing on raising awareness and other recycling campaigns.

How does our eco-fee system work? Very simple:

1) When purchasing a drink you pay an eco-fee (deposit) of 0,5 SHELL extra on each drink you order. For example, if you order 3 drinks, you also pay 3x the eco-fee.

2) Finished a drink? Then you have 2 options:

- New drink? Hand in your cup, PET bottle or can at the bar with your next order. The items you return will then be immediately deducted from your new order.

- Short break? Hand in your cup, PET bottle or can at the bar. We will then put the eco-fee of 0,5 SHELL per item on your festival wristband again. So you don't have to keep walking around with empty cups, bottles or cans.

To prevent fraud, you can return a maximum of 10 items more than the items you have already ordered throughout the festival day(s).
Our Story
Ostend Beach Festival was founded in 2010, before people began to become concerned about climate change. These days, everyone has woken up to the fact that we really have to do something about protecting the environment and reducing our impact on it. As a festival we’ve been exploring new ideas of how to lessen our toll on the beach and we’ve always tried to take an ecologically thoughtful approach to the way we do things, which we always hoped would inspire people.

We hope that we can continue to lead the charge in sustainable living by making Ostend Beach Festival as green as we are able to and by spreading the word to festival-goers about what will really make a difference to the environment. We continue to work as hard as we can on the practical things: from encouraging people to travel by public transport to promoting some great new initiatives on waste reduction.
Mission Statements
Our 10 mission statements for Ostend Beach 2023:

✘ working with ECOCUPS by GOODLESS with a deposit
✘ sensibilisation by Proper Strand Lopers at the festival
✘ all profits of our Guest Tickets donated to Proper Strand Lopers
✘ ECO teams, from building days till breakdown days
✘ separate waste management on the festival and backstage
✘ a close collaboration with the cleaning department of the city of Ostend
✘ NO plastic straws
✘ NO confetti
✘ NO flyering & NO sampling allowed
✘ we start with a clean beach, we end with a clean beach
Plastic Waste
It’s plastic where it shouldn’t be. It’s in the sea and on the beach and it’s causing harm. We’re using more plastic than ever, it’s durable, cheap to produce and we’re consuming it at staggering rates. Current estimates show that at last 8 million pieces of plastic are entering the oceans every single day.

As we know, plastic is strong, flexible and durable making it extremely useful, however that also means it never really breaks down. A plastic bottle can last for 450 years in the marine environment, slowly fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces which eventually end up microscopic but never truly go away. This means that every piece of plastic that has ever been produced is still with us, in some form. Yuck!
Proper Strand Lopers
Proper Strand Lopers is a citizens' initiative that tries to make people aware of the litter problem in our area. They are a network of volunteers and sympathizers who are active on social media and who work at various locations on the Belgian coast, Zeeland and inland, to remove litter from the area. Join their facebook group to see what they do.
Ecocups by Goodless
Thanks to this system, it is no longer necessary to produce a multitude of disposable cups. Each cup can be washed and reused as desired. Thus, we reduce the volume of production.
Therefore, the system puts an end to the following principle: a one-way cup for every single person.

Just like the supermarkets that have implemented the elimination of disposable plastic bags, we can imagine a similar future change of behavior for "reusable" cups replacing "disposable" ones. This is therefore a concrete act of sustainable waste reduction.
Ostend Dunes Campsite
TAKE YOUR TENTS AND ALL YOUR CAMPING EQUIPMENT HOME
Thousands of tents and abandoned camping equipment like airbeds, roll mats, chairs, blankets and gazebos are left after each festival. Think responsibly when you are packing your bags to come to Ostend Dunes, don’t bring items that you won’t be able to take back home again.

REMOVE TENT PEGS
Please remove all your tent pegs from the ground. It is really important not to leave any behind because they get imbedded in the ground and when the fields get rotavated, the metal pegs get chopped-up into small pieces.

LIMIT WHAT YOU BRING, AND CLEAN UP BEHIND YOU
Remember that you have the energy to do multiple trips back to your car on the friday when you are feeling fresh but come the monday morning after 3 days of partying and having fun energy levels are very low.

PUT ALL RUBBISH INTO BINS AND BIN-BAGS
There are over 100 very well signposted and beautifully painted bins (colour-coded for recycled and other rubbish) virtually everywhere on site for your rubbish. As you enter the site, stewards will hand you a green bag for recyclables and a clear bag for general waste – please help us look after the land by correctly filling them up as you go!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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