The hip Coachella festival in the middle of the California desert is commonly described as a disaster ecological, which generates a lot of waste in addition to being a noise nuisance for the surrounding ecosystems. Not to mention the car movements that the event generates. In Quebec, no festival leaves such an ecological footprint. But, while the summer of 2022 will be the summer of a return to normal after two years of the pandemic, major projects remain to be undertaken if these events are to boast of being “green”.
Prohibition of plastic straws and water bottles, local purchases, recycling and composting: most festivals have already made many efforts to limit their environmental cost over the past 10 years in Quebec. But good intentions do not always yield the expected results, on the contrary.
“It is better not to compost and recycle in the same festival. One of the two is possible, but not both. Because as the day goes on, people end up making mistakes and throwing everything away. From the moment that food ends up in recycling, or objects that need to be recycled in the compost, everything must be directed to the waste. We are therefore no further ahead,” explains Jean-François Ahern, founder of Modus Operandi Logistiques.
His company advises several major Montreal events on sustainable development issues. Based on his experience, Jean-François Ahern now recommends that his customers place compost bins only in the kitchens, where employees can sort out what is or is not compostable. Recycling bins can be made available to visitors, but sorting centers must absolutely be set up on site to remove unwanted waste, he adds. Otherwise, the recycling will end up in the garbage once returned to the hands of municipal employees.
“Festivals have a responsibility to put infrastructure in place to be as eco-responsible as possible. However, we must never lose sight of the fact that the bulk of this power is not in the hands of the organizers, but in those of the festival-goers”, insists however on specifying Jean-François Ahern by way of advice to all those who will converge on the Parc Jean-Drapeau or the Quartier des Spectacles this summer.
Because, in the end, it is up to the festival-goer to decide whether to use the trash cans or the recycling bins. It is also he who will make the choice to travel by public transport or by car.
Transport, sinews of war
In France, the thinking group environmentalist The Shift Project estimated that transporting festival-goers to a large-scale event in a remote region, such as Les Vieilles Charrues in Brittany, accounted for almost half of the tonnes of CO2 issued. Waste management represents less than 1% of the greenhouse gases produced in a similar festival.
In its report published last November, the think tank takes into account the fact that some of the ticket holders will have traveled by train, but that most will have traveled by car, or even by plane. However, if barely 3% of visitors take the plane, they will be responsible for more than 60% of the carbon footprint related to the transport of festival-goers.
“Public transport is clearly the biggest source of greenhouse gases. Added to this is the transport of artists and stage equipment… Even in urban centres, it is a challenge to move so many people. Yes, people will be able to access the site by metro, but many festival-goers come from remote areas and have traveled by car before arriving in town,” says Chloé Gagnon-Champigny, sustainable development advisor at the Conseil québécois des events écoresponsables. .
The transport of festival-goers is clearly the biggest source of greenhouse gases. Added to this is the transport of artists and stage equipment… Even in urban centres, it is a challenge to move so many people.
Mme Gagnon-Champigny believes that several major festivals would benefit from fine-tuning their shuttle service to other cities in order to avoid festival-goers having to use their car. That said, despite increasing climate change, she would never go so far as to say that big festivals, which attract tens of thousands of people from all over Quebec and around the world, are a thing of the past. Even those that take place far from major centers and that turn into giant parking lots, like the Western Festival of Saint-Tite or the Rockfest of Montebello in the past.
“Yes, there is an ecological footprint, she admits. But you have to weigh that against all the benefits of culture. Social benefits, but also ecological, I would like to say, because culture can also allow an ecological awareness. »
Awareness
Camped in a Mauricie town of less than 4,000 souls, the Festival western de Saint-Tite, which attracts some 600,000 spectators year after year in mid-September, knows that its business model will never be the most ecological. . The mecca of country music in Quebec, however, ensures that it takes its responsibilities. For several years, a green brigade has been roaming the site to ensure that recycling is not soiled by waste. The chemical toilets have also been almost all replaced by sanitary installations connected to the City’s aqueduct network.
“People stay an average of four days on the site and there is no hotel in Saint-Tite. Yes, there are buses leaving from Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan, but most people still have to camp. So we know very well that we will never be a carbon neutral event, but we try to compensate elsewhere, ”summarizes Pascal Lafrenière, the general manager of the festival.
The Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) has been carbon neutral since 2014 thanks to the carbon credit system, which takes the form of investments in reforestation to match the environmental cost of the festivities. Failing to be able to count on a local public transport system that meets the demand.
“We see very positively the construction of a structuring transportation network in Quebec City,” emphasizes the Executive Director of the FEQ, Anne Hudon, recalling that the arrival of international artists by plane also weighs heavily in the carbon footprint of the event.