Environment

Sustainability is a fundamental part of the Shine On Festival vibe. We understand that there can be considerable environmental impacts from activities associated with staging a festival - energy consumption, waster generation, resource use, greenhouse gas emissions etc.  We don't have all the answers but we are committed to finding them.

Listed below are some of the initiatives we have in place for the 2011 festival. This is an ongoing journey that we need your help with. 

Ticketing

Before you've even got onsite, you've been part of the festival's environmental program. We are happy to once again have Greentix as our ticketing provider, the most sustainable company in their field. Tickets are made and printed using the least environmentally damaging processes available. In addition for Shine On Festival 2011, Greentix will plant one tree for every ticket purchased.

Promotional Material

While we are moving more of our promotion online, there is still an need to get the word out the good old fashioned way! However our flyers, cafe posters and street posters are all printed using vegetable-based inks on recycled and/or sustainable plantation based paper.

Power

It takes a fair bit of power to run a music festival. While supplying these requirements to a temporary village in the middle of the countryside can be logistically difficult, the advantage is that we are in control of our electricity source.  Once again for 2011, all generators onsite will be run on bio-diesel, significantly reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption 

Waste & Recycling Initiatives

You have probably noticed by now just how beautiful the Shine On site is. We are aiming to keep it that way for decades to come. Which is why we have introduced a couple of initiatives that are a just a little bit different from other festivals.

Leave No Trace/Waste

Instead of being saddened by the fields of trash that blow about forlornly after you’ve left, we’re asking everyone to:

Take Your Rubbish Home

This keeps ticket prices down and ensures that all of us come together and party in a conscious manner. A good example is mattresses left on site: it costs us $20 per mattress to recycle in Melbourne. We could pay $15 per mattress to send them to land fill but we just won't do that. On average we have calculated that our waste management cost is $7 per head, so by taking your rubbish home it helps keep your ticket price down. Leaving no trace should be the norm, not the exception, so don’t be surprised when spankings are unleashed by strangely dressed characters roaming the campsites. Take home your bags, tents, couches, mattresses and anything else you came with and leave with dignity. You have been warned!

Bag Deposit Scheme

You may be familiar now with the blue bags that are exchanged for $5 from your pockets upon entry. Once youʼve set up camp and cracked your first beer the empty can goes into the bag alongside plastic bottles, long-life milk cartons and clean cardboard. If you need to empty the bag over the weekend, visit our Re:Cycle Centre, marked by the blue flags in the campground.

When leaving the campsite, double bag your waste and pop it in the boot of your car then hand the blue bag of recycling over as you exit. 

Bag Deposit refund can be collected from 8am until 11pm Sunday
& from 8am until midday Monday

Loot Ute Collection Service

Who you gonna call if your bag needs emptying? Loot Ute! Actually you don’t even need to call these guys and gals; they’ll be making the rounds from 8am every morning collecting your recyclables. Listen out for them approaching and empty your sack in their tray. If you ask nicely they might even be able to sort you out with more black or recycling bags.

Re:Cycle Centre

The hub of everything recycling related, the Re:Cycle Centre roots through all of the bins to extract recycling. Itʼs a task undertaken by those brave of heart and so as you pass by say Gʼday and think about signing up to volunteer next year. It certainly opens your eyes as to what people throw away. The Re:Cycle Centre will also accept recycling bag deposits after 12 noon on Sunday.

Recycling Stations

As usual recycling stations will be spread across the main arena, operating three colour coded streams:

Cans, plastc bottles, glass (not that you’ll have any!) and other metals will be recycled (Yellow Bins)

As all of our food markets are using biodegradable plates, bowls, and cutlery and cups, all food & crockery goes into our compost heap (Green Bins)

Anything else, like plastic bags or nappies goes to landfill and should be placed in the other bin (Red Bins)

If you’re not sure what goes where then have a chat to the friendly and informative Bin Ninja guarding the station

Big Butts

What ho? Weʼll be searching high and low for for the Lesser Spotted Butt, a feral being that inhabits the dancefloors and walkways of Shine On leeching arsenic and other poisons into the ground. Rewards are offered to all upstanding members of the public that

Bin their Butts. Just talk to one of our Butt Hunters or call into the info tent to get yourself a portable ashtray and stop this beast before itʼs too late....

Food Packaging

Bio degradable crockery and cutlery will be used by all market stall holders at Shine On festival. Please make sure you place your used plates, bowls, knives and forks in the composting bins so we can add them to our worm farm.

Some Common Recycling Myths, Busted!

Myth: By leaving my couch at the festival I am making a donation to charity
Fact: Unless your couch is in pristine condition (no rips, tearʼs, mud and all cushions accounted for) no charity will accept it.That also goes for carpet, mattresses and tents. Instead youʼre just leaving a really big piece of litter behind and increasing the cost of your ticket.
Myth: All the recycling just goes to landfill anyway
Fact: Shine On engage waste contractors that guarantee all plastic bottles, cartons and glass get taken to a recycling plant in Geelong
Myth: Fruit scraps and eggshells are Ok to leave on the ground because they are organic waste
Fact: Any foodstuffs left on the ground encourage vermin onto the site and some poor soul has to pick it up when itʼs half rotten.

Transport

Car Pooling

We strongly encourage car sharing/pooling.  Patron vehicle travel is by far the biggest environmental impact associated with the festival. We understand the desire to bring half your living room with you to make your campsite a little more comfortable, and that perhaps this would be difficult on the train. However there are always still plenty of empty seats heading up to the site. So visit the Getting There section of the website to fills these empty seats with a new friend.

Public Transport

The best option environmentally for getting to the festival is to catch a V/Line train to Beaufort or Ballarat where you will be met by a shuttle bus taking straight to the festival. See the "How to get there section"

Carbon Car Pass

At least 2/3rds of the average festival's carbon emissions come from audience travel to and from the festival site. To help address this we are promoting Car Pooling and public transport options. For those still wishing to travel by car, we are offering a carbon car pass.

At the front gate the Treecreds team will be offering all vehicles a carbon car pass valued at $10 which buys 1/4 tonne of forest saving offsets. 

Treecreds is a 'profit-for-purpose' organisation dedicated to saving threatened primary forests around the world and reducing the impact on climate change. For Shine On this year carbon credits are being produced from the Protecting the Devil's Forests project in Tasmania. It is Australia's first internationally recognised Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation project.