In a milestone fifth year of collaboration, our Spanish initiative, Cada Lata Cuenta, and WOMAD Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Festival 2023 joined forces to champion drink can recycling and raise awareness about environmental protection among festival-goers during the concerts and activities scheduled from November 9 to 12.
Equipped with their distinctive backpacks, our ambassadors roamed the festival grounds on a clear mission: to facilitate on-the-go recycling and inform visitors about the importance of environmental protection. Additionally, they conducted surveys to gain insights into attendees’ recycling habits.
According to surveys conducted in 2022, nearly 80% of respondents could locate recycling bins at the festival, with 70% expressing positivity towards waste management during WOMAD. Also, almost 80% gave a favourable rating to the event’s sustainability efforts.
Pablo García, the Programme Manager of Cada Lata Cuenta in Spain and a PhD in Ecology, emphasized our team’s continued support to make WOMAD cleaner and more sustainable. The goal is to recycle 100% of drink cans during the festival, highlighting that they are infinitely and easily recyclable.
“By simply depositing them in the yellow container, we guarantee 100% recycling—a gesture that contributes to halting climate change and reducing CO2 emissions,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, our team members held a special meeting with the Every Can Counts’ Director, David Van Heuverswyn, to discuss their future steps. They reflected on the programme’s efforts in Spain, delved into the 2024 strategy and objectives, and listened to the insights of our recycling ambassadors, who shared their valuable perspectives from their experience on the field.
The dynamic collaboration between WOMAD and Cada Lata Cuenta not only aimed to make recycling more accessible but also sought to inspire attendees to undergo a transformative shift in attitudes towards sustainability. Drink can recycling conserves valuable resources and leads to substantial environmental benefits. By choosing to recycle, festival goers actively participated in saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.