As EDMSauce reported earlier this year, Ultra Music Festival announced their commitment to improving their environmental and sustainability responsibilities by creating a litter and pollution free environment at the Ultra Music Festival 2019 location in Virginia Key. Now, Ultra Music announced their continued commitment for their Mission: Home’ environmental protection and sustainability campaign at next year’s festival and beyond. Ultra Music Festival's initiatives include Leave No Trace policy, single-use plastic reduction efforts and recycling program.
> Also Read: What is Ultra Music Festival?
Ultra Music Festival reported their 2019 initiative avoided the use of 526,000 single-use plastic items and diverted 60,360 pounds of waste from landfills. 31% of the waste created during the festival was recycled or composted and 100% of recycling loads were accepted by the local facility. Further sustainability initiatives included the implementation of a Leave No Trace policy, a recycling and composting program, increased free water refill stations to further reduce plastic water bottles and the banning of single-use plastic straws, cups, food packaging and cutlery. Local environmental organizations VolunteerCleanup.org, Surfrider Miami and Debris Free Oceans collaborated on an unbiased, third-party report card detailing Ultra’s achievements and key learnings, giving the festival an overall first-year sustainability grade of an ‘A’.
It's wonderful to see music festivals around the United States becoming environmentally conscious and responsible for the waste produced by their large festival productions in a time that recycling and environmental education is imperative. Ultra Music Festival follows suit with other leading music festivals and entertainment companies such as Lightning In A Bottle and Live Nation who are also very committed to reducing waste and creating a litter free festival environment. Hopefully we will see this commitment to environmental sustainability throughout Ultra Festivals, not just in the United States but worldwide.
