This briefing has been updated for 2025, as part of the Towards Zero Waste Festivals project, to help event organisers fully understand the current legislative landscape for waste, and how they affect events and festivals. 

Waste was identified as one of the top three sustainability priorities by event organisers in Vision for Sustainable Events’s annual Industry Green Survey for seven consecutive years (2015-2021). The Towards Zero Waste Festivals report (March 2023) provides a detailed picture of the challenges to improved waste management at outdoor events and provides recommendations for the industry. The report identified a knowledge gap amongst event organisers about waste regulations and what to ask contractors.

In response, the Vision for Sustainable Events team created a briefing; ‘Festival Industry Materials and Waste 101,’. It has been updated and published this week to explain how the new for 2025, Simpler Recycling laws and single-use vape ban will affect festivals. It also includes updates on the implications of policies that have now been implemented and those that have been delayed