This year’s Edinburgh Food Festival will join the fight against climate change as producers Assembly Festival announce a series of sustainability partnerships for 2023’s event.
The festival is partnering with STACK-CUP™ to pilot a reusable cup scheme, and Vegware to implement a 360° composting system across front and back of house for the ten-day event which begins on 21 July at Assembly George Square Gardens.
STACK-CUP™ UK’s patented stackable cups, that have a lifecycle of 500 washes per cup, will be available at Edinburgh Food Festival bars around the festival site and visitors will be asked to pay a £1 non-refundable deposit with the proceeds being donated to a local food charity.
Meanwhile, Close the Loop is Vegware’s own trade waste collection service, taking used packaging and food scraps for commercial composting. This year Edinburgh Food Festival will require all food and drink to be sold in plant-based fully compostable containers with compostable utensils and means that all front of house food waste can be sent for in-vessel processing through the Close the Loop initiative; waste will be turned into nutrient rich high-grade compost in just eight to twelve weeks from collection. This compost then feeds future crops in fields across Scotland.
The partnerships are the latest in a long line of measures from Assembly Festival that demonstrate its ongoing commitment to sustainability at the Edinburgh Food Festival. Sustainability underpins the festival’s programming strands which this year include Ethical Eating, Seasonality, Mood Impacting Foods, Plant Based Living and the Zero Waste Kitchen. These themes will be explored through a variety of cooking demonstrations, talks and workshops throughout the event.
Nik Whybrew, Operations Director at Assembly Festival and Edinburgh Food Festival said, “Looking after the environment and caring for the climate is one of the most important issues of our age. As organisers of the Edinburgh Food Festival, we are constantly mindful of the impact we are having on the habitat around us. Our partnership with Vegware and STACK-CUP™ this year is a natural next step as we continue to look for new ways to reduce the environmental footprint of all our festivals and events.”
