Litter free river
In order not to litter and be able to restore the river, we have taken measures. We have continuous contact with Uppsala municipality in order to be able to plan how the river is kept clean in the best way and what waste the possibilities are for visitors. On the rafts, there must also be nothing that does not float, so that something that has sunk to the bottom is not missed. To prevent the rubbish from being sluiced further, we also have bilges in the target area that catch all the rubbish.
Choice of styrofoam and envirorafts
As the rafts are built of cellular plastic, our priority is that they should be built in as stable and good a way as possible so that they have the opportunity to become enviroraft in the future. Enviroraft rafts mean that when the rafts reach their destination, the bottoms that are intact will be saved for future years. To achieve this, we buy cellular plastic with a higher density, among other things. We also encourage the runner to think about the construction. This year we have a small reward for the rafters who have succeeded in creating an environmental raft for the coming years with the initiative of our wonderful rafting group that organizes the whole rafting. This means that we reduce the use of cellular plastic, as well as reduce the amount of waste. Based on this, we evaluate which type of cellular plastic lasts the best and gives off the least cellular plastic during travel so that we can in the future recycle even more rafts!
Reduce of litter during the festival
To reduce the spread of cellular plastic and other rubbish, the construction area is demarcated by a fence with construction fabric to catch anything that can easily blow away. In addition, builders have to stand in large containers when they grate cellular plastic in order for it to collect in these. ON the festival grounds there are also bins for the benefit of visitors who are not there to build rafts but participate in one of the festival's other activities. At all garbage stations, there must be an opportunity to sort your garbage, and we want it to be easy to do the right thing when it comes to disposing of your garbage in a good way. The waste is collected by Uppsala Vatten & Avfall, where the food waste is then turned into biogas.
Reduce of plastic and disposables
We try to reduce dishes that require a lot of disposable items, and invite visitors to bring their own food boxes to put food in, cutlery and water bottles to avoid having to use disposable items. The disposable items that are still ordered are mostly not made of plastic, as we offer wooden cutlery, and cardboard cups are offered for water instead of plastic. We also do not sell any drinks in plastic bottles. We also do not hand out any flyers or inedible give-aways.
Good food!
The food manager for our event has placed great emphasis on designing attractive, vegetarian dishes on the menu. Organic, locally produced, KRAV or Fairtrade labeled options of food are also prioritized. This year we can announce that all the man served at the festival will be vegetarian.
Sustainability
We try to have a long-term mindset in our work, by, for example, designing good statistical collection to reduce wastage in future years, but also by thinking about being able to reuse materials that are designed. We continuously evaluate the products/materials used so that we can find the best alternative. We also try to maintain good contact with companies and associations in order to be able to maintain a continued good cooperation for future research.
The committee also works with making so-called environmental analyses. An environmental analysis is formed by having everyone on the committee fill in to evaluate what in their work affects the environment the most. This is for everyone to think about environmental work and then implement measures that are possible.
The Enviroraft are something that has been saved for several years. this year we will have environmental fleets that use 2019!. We avoid ordering new things, borrow from other committees within the corps, and rent things. Examples of this are wetsuits and helmets that are reused from previous years or rented.
In 2019 the committee expanded with one more person. We now have a person that is responsible for our sustainability work (Håll).
Do you have any questions about the committees sustainability work?
Contact the responsible for our sustainability work: hall@forsranningen.utn.se