Sailfest is a two-day event in New London’s downtown and waterfront. It’s also the biggest summertime festival in the area and welcomes thousands of people each year, including many Connecticut College students. Families and friends can gather to have a fun time playing games, trying various food and drinks, going shopping, seeing live music, and watching different displays like the fireworks show that is held over the Thames River.

Events like Sailfest are a great way to bring people together, gather communities, and support cities and their local businesses. Almost all of the proceeds from this event go back into the city of New London to help other local organizations.  

But there’s a downside too. Events and festivals like Sailfest happen every day around the world and it makes me  wonder how much waste is generated from all of these events. Food leftovers, discarded packaging and decorations, and the firework display all contribute to waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

That isn’t to say that there shouldn’t be events at all, or to take away the opportunity for food and decorations, but we should focus on what strategies can be implemented to reduce the amount of waste.

Although it may seem like an impossible task to improve the sustainability of festivals, there are a few changes to the setup and materials used that can make a big difference. Researchers at Iowa State find that an average attendee produces about four pounds of waste, but simple changes in message framing may encourage event attendees to recycle. The study concludes that upcycling messages helped create more positive reactions towards recycling at events. If marketers put more effort into advertising what recyclable materials will become, through product transformation, or where they’ll end up, there will be more positive attitudes toward recycling.

Gain-and-loss message framing is also an impactful way to motivate people to be more environmentally conscious. It’s a strategy that influences people’s behaviors by showing positive outcomes or negative consequences to encourage them to engage in action. Those with abstract minds focus on the potential positive outcomes, and concrete mindsets will be more persuasive.

Another concept to make attendees more conscious is to create more anthropomorphized messages associated with recycling. Humans don’t usually have moral concern over the environment because there isn’t an anthropomorphized object to have empathy towards. But if events created some type of green messaging with a sad recycling bin, for example, people may feel more sympathetic towards their recycling habits at events.  

Some of these changes may increase the cost of entry, food, and other products for sale and can steer people away from attending the event. But if events like Sailfest are transparent with the reason why things are more expensive, which is to help with sustainability, and also have incentives to support it such as disposable Tupperware and other goodies to take home, attendees could be more willing to pay for increased fees.