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. Assembly Festival and Edinburgh Food Festival have announced a partnership with STACK-CUP™ UK and Vegware for the free-to-enter food festival taking place at Assembly George Square Gardens Friday 21 through to Sunday 30 July 2023.
The Edinburgh Food Festival marks the beginning of Assembly Festival’s summer season and in 2022 attracted over 100,000 visitors to the event at Assembly’s popular festival hub. This year, 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. These measures together will significantly reduce the event’s environmental impact.
STACK-CUP™ UK’s patented stackable cups will be available at Edinburgh Food Festival bars around the festival site at Assembly George Square Gardens. Visitors will be asked to pay a £1 non-refundable deposit with the proceeds being donated to a local food charity. The STACK-CUP™ is made from fully recyclable polypropylene, a plastic polymer that uses less energy to make than canvas or paper. Each cup has a lifecycle of 500 washes per cup and has STACK-CUP™ UK’s specially designed handle that allows them to be stacked and carried multiple in one hand.
Close the Loop is Vegware’s own trade waste collection service, taking used packaging and food scraps for commercial composting. Edinburgh Food Festival has prohibited the use of single-use plastics and polystyrene for a number of years, but in 2023 will require all food and drink to be sold in plant-based fully compostable containers with compostable utensils. This means that all front of house food waste can be sent for in-vessel processing through the Close the Loopinitiative; 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. Visitors will be able asked to play their part by putting their waste in the appropriate bin at the events recycling stations, knowing that by doing so their actions are making a tangible difference.
These partnerships are the latest in a long line of measures from Assembly Festival demonstrating 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 across the ten-day event.
In addition, the Edinburgh Food Festival is proud to be one of the very few food festivals taking place on a temporary site which runs fully on mains power, the result is no carbon emissions are created by the use of generators or their transportation.
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.”
James Roles, Global Managing Director of STACK-CUP™ UK added: “We’re excited to welcome the Edinburgh Food Festival to the STACK-CUP™ family as an organisation and event thatrecognises the need to reduce our throwaway culture. They join a long line of partners who have committed to taking steps to protect the environment with practical solutions to reduce waste and deliver an excellent experience for their customers.”
A representative from Vegware said: “We’re delighted to be working with Edinburgh Food Festival to provide our Close the Loop service. UK soils are in crisis, with British farms being 30 to 40 years away from the eradication of soil fertility. Compost from events such as these can help reverse this trend, feeding British soil to grow crops and feed British consumers.”
Assembly Festival’s Edinburgh Food Festival places quality Scottish produce firmly in the centre of the table for a ten-day celebration of taste. The festival thinks global but buys local, with seasonal and sustainably sourced local produce used across the ten-day event.
Edinburgh Food Festival 2023 will run Friday 21 July through to Sunday 30 July at Assembly George Square Gardens. For more information and to sign up to receive updates follow @edfoodfest or visit www.edfoodfest.com.
