The South Coast waste warrior helping music festivals like Wanderer and Cobargo Folk go waste free

Its a far cry from the days when festivals goers would leave seas of plastic cups and debris in their wake, with clean-up crews left carting wheelie bins full of rubbish destined for landfill.

The South Coast has recently given rise to these new kinds of 'green ethos' festivals.

The events want to celebrate music while also recognising the huge impact festivals can have on the local area, people, and councils who are ultimately responsible for dealing with the leftover waste.

Passionate Bega ecologist, Hugh Pitty has been tasked with leading a 'green team' for the latest South Coast festival to hit Pambula from September 23 to 25 - Wanderer Festival.

The role appointment comes after his success at Cobargo Folk Festival in May where he led a dedicated team of 15 volunteers in a similar role.

"The success of the approach was evident in that the 4,000 people attending the festival only created around 700 litres of landfill material which is the equivalent of only three standard 240 litre wheelie bins," said Hugh.

He said the idea of the 'green festival' has been taking off gradually over the past five years, with some events more forward thinking than others.

Wanderer festival has revealed that sustainability would be front of mind for its team and festival goers alike.

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The only bins provided on the site will be for recycling and compost - with a blanket ban on plastic bags, straws, cutlery, and water bottles.

There will be free water refill and wash stations with biodegradable soap available to wash reusable bottles, cups and utensils.

Food and drink vendors will serve products in re-usable or compostable packaging, there will be reusable or and recyclable water bottles and cups available for purchase.

Reusable signage will be used throughout the main event and campground, recycled stationery and paper will be used for office materials and onsite programs.

Although the concept of the zero-waste festivals seems quite new, the idea itself has been around and implemented by folks like Hugh for much longer.

He said he was first introduced to the idea in the mid nineties as part of his involvement with the South East Region Recycling Group.

He heard the term from Gerry Gillespie who wrote and published books on recycling and waste reduction for local councils in 1988. His work focused on the reuse of organics back to soil.

Hugh's first major zero-waste project on the Far South Coast was launched at Bega's Mumbulla School for Rudolf Steiner Education in 1999.

Grant funding for the Zero Waste Schools Program were allocated through the NSW Government's Community Waste Reduction Grants Scheme.

The aim of the project was to establish a best-practice demonstration site for waste minimisation in a school environment.

The school set a target to reduce waste by 90 per cent within 12 months, but a target of 97 per cent was reached in just nine months.

"Our approaches were very much around reduce and reuse at the top of the waste minimisation hierarchy, rather than recycling which is lower down," he said.

"For example the students all got given a sandwich napkin to wrap sandwiches in and could get more from the office, rather than them using plastic wrap.

"I was taught simple things like that from my mum - they were normal two generations ago when she was at school in Hobart. So in many ways it was about returning to sustainable 'old ways'," he said.

A reuse centre was also implemented in the school where things were brought to be turned into something useful. An example was mandarin skins from the school's citrus trees that would be dried out and used as fire lighters for the wood fireplace in one of the classrooms.

"If you think of something as waste then it's a problem, whereas if you think of it as a resource then you'll find a solution. Waste and landfill as concepts don't exist in nature," said Hugh.

Hugh said his work more recently with festivals created good opportunities to shift people's consciousness because at the event, "they were out of their regular day-to-day headspace".

"While the main reason they're there is to enjoy music and arts events, they will be consuming things and so there will be volunteers there to offer guidance about which bins to use.

"We've found it was a big education opportunity and people took that awareness home with them to apply in their own lives."

Hugh also practices the concept of zero-waste in his own household and encourages others to try and implement better waste management practices in their homes.

Here are some of Hugh Pitty's ideas for a zero-waste home:

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