One of the leading centres of jazz presentation in the world, The Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF) has joined forces with Green Music Australia to tackle plastic pollution and phase out single-use plastic. Starting this weekend, reusable drink bottles from GMA’s Refill Not Landfill Library will be placed backstage in 26 venues across the City, displacing the cases and cases of bottled water used previously.

Green Music Australia’s waste campaigner, Berish Bilander, said “We are thrilled to be helping such an iconic Melbourne festival take a stand on disposable plastic and reduce their waste output. Plastic pollution is harming our planet at an extraordinary scale, threatening sea-life, washing up on remote islands, and now even making its way into our drinking water. That’s why it’s so important to see influential cultural institutions, like Melbourne International Jazz Festival, step up and do their bit.”

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival runs from the June 1 to June 10.

To find out more about the #BYObottle campaign and get involved, email [email protected].

See below for MIJF’s full statement.

The Melbourne International Jazz Festival is committed to a sustainable future.

Working in partnership with Green Music Australia [https://www.greenmusic.org.au], in 2018 we are working towards a single-use-plastics-free Festival. We are asking our venues, artists, partners, sponsors, funding partners, members, volunteers and audiences to join us in supporting this initiative.

Here’s what we are doing:

• In our back-of-house areas we will be providing reusable drink bottles from GMA’s “Refill Not Landfill Library”, and sustainably sourced filtered water for artists and MIJF crew. This replaces the previous practice of buying slabs and slabs of bottled water. Venue crew will be encouraged to provide their own refillable bottles – and thanks to Yamaha Music Australia [link] we will be providing bottles for anyone backstage who leaves theirs at home!
• In our front-of-house areas we are lobbying venues to sell glass-bottled water rather than plastic, and to replace drinking station disposable plastic cups with glassware or hygienic multiple-use plastic alternatives
• In venues that sell food, we encourage them to use sustainably-sourced materials and avoid unnecessary plastic (such as cups, straws and cutlery)
• Our wonderful volunteers are encouraged to supply their own refillable water bottles

More broadly, Melbourne International Jazz Festival has a long-standing Sustainability Code of Practice which looks to embed eco-initiatives into our ongoing programming and practices. This Code of Practice covers operations, transport and procurement across the whole organisation.

We have also pledged to support Take 2 – the Victorian Government’s climate change pledge. Find out more here [https://www.take2.vic.gov.au/] or view our pledge here [https://tinyurl.com/y8y7m9g4]

This is an ongoing process and we will continue to refine and develop our sustainability practice. If you have any suggestions as to how we can continue to improve please email info @ melbournejazz.com.