Famed author George Orwell once wrote: "If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out." Organizers of this year's Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts (FOWA) are applying the same principle to the waste a writers' festival produces.
"We're trying to be more environmentally responsible, so we're taking some steps this year," said FOWA producer Jane Davidson on the vision for the festival to produce only two bags of garbage. "That's our goal. I don't know that we're going to get there this year, but you never know. We might. That's our dream -to get a four-day festival down to a minimum of garbage."
In order to pull off the drastic waste reduction, the FOWA has taken some innovative steps.
FOWA was able to secure a $1,500 grant-in-aid from the Sunshine Coast Regional District to help purchase more environmentally-friendly products to run the festival.
"The $1,500 allows us to make sure that all products we purchase for serving beer and wine, the plates that people eat from, the cutlery they use, is all compostable," Davidson said.
FOWA has partnered with Direct Disposal owner Norm Bonin to collect all the compostable material, which is now almost everything, and send it off to the Direct Disposal composting facility where it is broken down into planting soil.
Gone are the sales of bottled water, which used to bring in about $1,000 in revenue each year. This year the board is asking attendees to bring their own refillable bottles and coffee mugs. For those who forget, FOWA has partnered with the Sunshine Coast Credit Union to sell "filled and chilled" stainless steel bottles emblazoned with the FOWA and Credit Union logos.
Davidson is plain about the reasons for taking steps towards zero-waste, even if it won't necessarily happen on the first try.
"It's the right thing to do," she said. "I'm really proud that the organization has taken this stand because it is something we all need to do as organizations and as individuals."
She said there is something of a natural marriage between the types of people who attend a writers' festival and the types of people who want to participate in waste reduction.
"These are people who, for the most part, are informed and concerned about a variety of issues, and the health of our planet is one of them," she said.
This year's festival is expected to draw in about 3,500 attendees eager to listen to such multi-literary award winning writers as Lawrence Hill, Bonnie Burnard and Ian Brown, as well as a number of local writers and poets. The festival runs Aug. 12 to 15.
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