Bye Bye Plastic is Serving an Alternative to Single Use
Single-use plastic is wreaking havoc for our planet in so many different ways. Plastics are not just a waste or health problem, but single-use plastic is an extremely serious environmental threat. If that’s not enough of a convincing factor to make you want to stop using plastic, it is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic waste in the ocean than there are fish.
However, there are incredible organizations that are fighting to combat this trend, like Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, who’s mission is to remove single-use plastics within the music industry. Bye Bye Plastic was created by co-founders Vivie-ann Bakos, whom you may also know as the sensational Canadian DJ and music producer BLOND:ISH, and Camille Guitteau.
OFM got a chance to catch up with Camille to ask her a couple questions about her and BLOND:ISH’s inspiration behind Bye Bye Plastic, what progress they have made so far, and what the organization hopes to accomplish in the future.
Where did Bye Bye Plastic start?
Well, if you ask “where exactly,” the answer is “on the web!” It started out of BLOND:ISH’s brain, and then was quite an insane “planetary alignment” moment. When it got time to register, Bye Bye Plastic started in Europe, and over here in Europe, we’re registered as a nonprofit, public benefit organization in the Netherlands. And we’ve always been international from the get-go because this is also the organic nature of the music industry. So we wanted to make sure that we could answer and service a large regional or geographic area basically. So very quickly, we knew that we had to step up and expand, so it’s kind of the opposite from what other businesses would do where you would start local and expand from there. We kind of started internationally from the get-go. But yeah, from Western Europe, we opened a sister entity in the U.S. (501c3), and we’re now active throughout the U.S.
What was the inspiration behind Bye Bye Plastic?
Basically BLOND:ISH and I came up with the same conclusion about what needed to change in our scene, just from two opposite sides of the dance floor! BLOND:ISH started noticing and getting sad at the amount of plastic bottles and cups being swooshed away after her closing sets would end. As a dancer, I was on that dance floor, and I felt forced to stomp on plastics instead of being able to dance freely. I was working in the music business for some time already. I took a break to think through what would be my next chapter. And in this chapter, I knew I would have to put some purpose and thought into it. I realized that, you know, the lowest priority for a lot of people is the environment, especially plastic and plastic waste.
At the same period, BLOND:ISH got into the same kind of mindset about what should be done about plastic in the scene: We realized that the music and events sector had not only a responsibility like every other sector, but also has a unique opportunity to actually be changing the narrative creatively and positively. So this is what we think is the unique power of music, the social connector of live moments, basically, that we’ve all experienced on our own scales whether once or 100 times. This unique, connecting power of music is exactly what we wanted to tap into.
How has Bye Bye Plastic been received so far in the EDM music industry?
It’s been received really well. That was also the purpose of our first viral movement, the Eco-Rider, which was the initiation of Bye Bye Plastic as a collective, and we wanted to activate every stakeholder of the music industry. It starts with artists and DJs because they have this power of influence over their communities, their fans, and also the music event professionals. So we wanted to find small, actionable steps for them to implement first. And we came up with the Eco-Rider, which in essence is a small addendum to their usual rider, technical and hospitality rider. This is the document artists provide at any event or festival that books them, basically telling the production team what their needs are. So this Eco-Rider document requests for no single-use plastic to be used in the DJ booth and in the green room, etc.
This small step was just so easy and simple to implement that you can’t say no if you share similar values. So that’s how we really rallied the community, and in turn, we helped them to wake artists up to the power of their collective voice. Because we really did a strong amount of background work to synchronize everyone and make sure that everyone would post about it in the same moment, the same day, and that really made an enormous wave, basically, which triggered this movement of change.
What are some of the challenges that Bye Bye Plastic has faced besides the obvious use of plastic waste?
I think everywhere, there is this little human condition of being set in your ways or being relatively adverse to changing them in the first place. And the single-use (plastic) culture is so easy to fall into and so easy to discard or hide, or not see the adverse effects of. So it’s really to make a conscious effort to bring it in front of your eyes and in front of your mind as well. There is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for sustainability but they’re is also a certain amount of understanding about it that is needed when it comes down to it. It requires engagement of different stakeholder levels, and it requires tremendous amounts of research, and sometimes it’s met with this resistance to longer-term changes.
You know, we as an industry are an industry of high and fast consumption, and have historically tied financial relationships with heavily fossil fuel-related industries. So, it’s also a long-term and a very strong conscious effort that we need to make in order to step out of that.
What are the plans for the future and how would you like to expand Bye Bye Plastic?
We have a few ideas and areas for expansion. First, I would say what’s so interesting, in a lot of ways, but not really surprising, is that from the get-go, we have received so many reactions from the community on a global level saying, “You need to come here; you need to work over here in this region, that region, etc”. And it’s not like it came as a surprise for us that plastic is everywhere. Turns out, who knew? A few regions and countries we’re looking to expand into would be Canada and Mexico. We’re also starting to work with Turkey and Egypt, and we’re really proud of starting those conversations over there! So these are the regions where we’re actively looking to help music events transition out of single-use plastic. We are also looking to structure a little bit further our activities into funded programs that could help alleviate the costs or entry into transition for certain events, and really help them to make those sustainable choices.
There’s another project that we’re also looking to fund further and to help create offline iterations for, basically, which is our Stay’ge Positive program. This program was a learning pod empowering artists to grow their climate influence. Stay’ge Positive is crafted specifically for artists who are looking to become climate creatives. So to say, artists who are climate conscious, who want to use their voice for environmental change, but don’t really have the tools and understanding on how to do this, basically.
So what we’ve done is, we’ve created this program to empower them to grow into their own unique and influential voice through step-by-step modules. From going back to the basics and understanding the dynamics of climate change, how to think this through, how to think critically, where to look for the right sources, etc. It’s like a journey into the self. What are the things that move you the most? What are the things that actually make you care, and why should you continue to care and what levels of emotion do you have to put in there in order for you to take this into your own career and creative practice and find your own tone of voice and your own leverages within this big dynamic and this big change that we’re all enduring basically.
How can your followers, our readers, and anyone else get engaged?
Well, there’s the obvious, like engaging on social media, following, sharing, commenting, all of those things do matter to show your interest and show the cause matters big time. You can also use your voice, whether it’s sharing to your community, to the events that you go to and that you attend, make your voice heard, and make it clear to the organizers that you love the festivals you are attending but are not OK with the amount of plastic that’s on the dance floor. Tell them, let them know, and it can be done from a place of care and intentionality, in a collective, creative way. And you know, when you do so, you can obviously mention Bye Bye Plastic and what we are doing, tell them we can help them make those changes. You can also volunteer to come help power the #PlasticFreeParty with us at an event near you! We’re active in so many cities that we’re always on the lookout for eco-minded buddies. Another complementary and equally important way can be donating or creating a fundraiser on social media or a fundraising event like a race or a party to help fuel the change. And of course, more than anything, refuse, and reduce, fossil-fuel plastic use.
To learn more, donate, or find some eco-friendly and sustainable plastic alternatives, go to byebyeplastic.life.
