Sustainability is at the heart of all we do – and, whilst time and size constraints mean that we aren’t able to replicate all of the green initiatives we offer at Shambala, we’ve worked hard to make sure Shambino measures up to our stringent green standards…
MEAT & FISH FREE
As with Shambala, Shambino’s food traders will be serving up the most dazzling, hearty and colourful array of all vegetarian fare.
Want to dig into the how’s, why’s and what’s around our meat free stance? You can do so on the Shambala Festival website, here.
Meat lovers, you can choose to bring your own meat onsite should you wish to!
WE’VE ‘GONE OFF’ MILK
Again, as with Shambala, all hot drinks purchased at Shambino can be made with a variety of plant based milks.
Every non-dairy option has it’s pros and cons, but the science shows that cow’s milk is by far the worst for overall environmental impacts. We’ve done our research, and trawled the Ethical Consumer ratings and will only be providing the most sustainable options – in a nutshell, oat, coconut, (European grown) soy and hemp are on the menu. Rice and almond milk are not.
Read the un-condensed version of why we’ve ‘gone off’ milk, over on the Shambala website, here.
BRING A BOTTLE
We don’t sell plastic bottles at our events, and haven’t since 2013. Instead, our green and pleasant site is dotted with refill points, where you can fill your boots (or, preferably, your bottle) with free drinking water.
With this in mind, please make sure you do bring along a reusable bottle – or you can buy one of our stainless steel branded bottles on site.
BRING A CUP
‘Cardboard’ coffee cups may look all earthy and recyclable, but they aren’t – due to a sneaky polymer lining that means they can not be recycled at your generic recycling plants. For this reason, we have been slowly phasing them out at Shambala, by encouraging everyone to bring their own reusable coffee cups, and charging an additional levy on any hot drinks bought in disposable cups.
With Shambino, we’re upping the ante, and will not be offering any disposable coffee cups – so make sure you do bring your own (or buy a lush, branded Shambala cup on site or HERE).
We strongly believe that the future of festivals is to design out disposables completely.
REUSABLE BAR CUP SCHEME
Rather than disposable plastic or paper cups, we operate a reusable bar cup system. People pay a one-off £1 levy when they buy their first drink and then get a fresh cup when they return their cup (or a token) to the bar. After the festival all the dirty cups are taken to an industrial washing facility to be cleaned and reused for other events. Many lifecycle analyses find that reusable plastic bar cups used 3 times have a lesser environmental impact than a typical single-use cup despite the transportation and washing impacts.
RECYCLING
Due to the size constraints of Shambino, and the short lead time before the event, we will not have the Recycling Exchange and Recycling Bonds that you’ll be used to at Shambala. Instead, each attendee will be given the appropriate bin bags on entry, and asked to keep their site clean, their recycling sorted, and to dispose of these in the dedicated recycling bin hubs in your campsites.
We’re trusting you to keep Shambino as clean and tidy as Shambala is, without the ‘dangling carrot’ of a returned recycling bond, so please make us proud!
ENERGY
As with Shambala, Shambino will be 100% powered by renewable fuels, and we are trialling some cutting edge battery technology.
TRAVEL
Whilst we would truly love to be reducing our carbon footprint (the vast majority of which comes from travel) by putting on our usual fleet of coaches from across the country, and shuttle buses from Market Harborough station, we are not able to pull this off this year for a number of reasons. So, as a total one off, all attendees will need to travel to Shambino independently. Normal service will resume at Shambala 2022 when we’ll have coaches and cycling tours coming out of our ears once again.
We do however encourage you to do what you can, by ensuring you have as many bums on seats in your cars as possible, by car sharing with your group wherever possible.