Countdown to Refill Revolution at Bonaroo 2015

By Katya Stabler While looking out of the window on my flight into Nashville to join the PPC crew, I was blown away by how green and verdant everything was. After waking up in beautiful Nashville and eating a hearty Southern breakfast, the crew and I filled up our food grade stainless steel water bottles and began explaining the Refill Revolution to everyone who crossed our paths. Refill Revolution is the name Bonnaroo and Steelys Drinkware have given to their partnership and program, which began as a pilot in 2014 to encourage festival goers to reduce their plastic footprint by purchasing and reusing stainless steel cups and bottles. Bonnaroo has partnered with PPC and Steelys to produce branded cups for the festival, which festival goers are incentivized to buy (the first beer in the cup is more expensive but every beer bought in the reusable cup thereafter is $1 cheaper). Last year, Bonnaroo ordered 7,500 cups which sold out on the second day of the festival (Friday) and 15,000 bottles. According to Bonnaroo's sustainability report for 2014, the Refill Revolution pilot program diverted 430,000 disposable plastic bottles and cups from landfill over the four days of the festival. They calculated this by monitoring how much water was used by refill stations and by how many bottles and cups they sold. This year, over 13,000 cups have been ordered plus 500 specially designed artist branded cups. Last year, festival goers could only buy cups on site during the festival. This year, they were able to order their cups along with their wristbands, allowing them to get cups before they sold out on site. Approximately 7,000 cups were pre-sold this way, and the rest are being sold on-site, in addition to reusable bottles branded with the Bonnaroo logo and year. In conjunction with these cups and bottles, PPC and Steelys are operating two booths to inform festival goers of the negative impacts of disposable plastic use. One of these booths is directed toward average festival goers, in the Planet Roo area of the Farm, and the other is specific to touring musicians (focused around Plastic Free Touring) in the Artist Hospitality area. #RefillRevolution is a movement to change America's disposable mindset and to stop the negative impacts our throw-away behavior has on resources, the environment, and the health of living things. As we begin another year at Bonnaroo representing Plastic Pollution Coalition in Planet Roo and in the Artist Area, we continue to spread the word that single-use and disposable plastic pollute. #plasticpollutes #refillrev Katya Stambler is a PPC intern reporting live from Bonnaroo 2015. She has a deep love for the environment and has been a member of the coalition since 2012. Shown here at S.T.E.A.M day at her school, where she organized a plastic art piece in conjunction with PPC.