Dartmouth Food Festival is continuing its Fight Against Plastic by banning single-use plastics including sachets, straws, cups, plates and plastic bags.

All exhibitors at the food festival being held from Friday, October 19 to Sunday, October 21, will be using suitable alternatives including compostable (where possible) or biodegradable serve-ware and packaging.

New this year, exhibitors will not be permitted to sell any kind of drink, including water, in plastic disposable bottles.

All festival goers are encouraged to bring their own re-usable bottles with them and to refill for free at a variety of local businesses including Browns Hotel, Cafe Alf Resco, Dart to Mouth Deli, The Dart Marina Hotel and Spa, The Royal Castle Hotel and Smith Street Deli.

The Festival’s Plastics Policy is supported by the merchandise which includes a light weight re-usable steel-spun water bottle and a quality jute shopping bag.

In addition, this year the festival is working hard on the waste collection side to ensure that everything is disposed of or recycled in the best way.

Dartmouth Food Festival is pleased to welcome ‘Till the Coast is Clear’, a Kingsbridge based social enterprise engaged in actively removing plastic pollution from the shoreline by boat.

It will be working alongside Coastal Recycling which will be on hand to help us reduce waste, maximise recycling and reach our environmental goals.

Festival goers will have the chance to meet the ‘Till the Coast is Clear’ team at the Action Plastic stand of the Embankment near Platform 1 where the team will be promoting a range of plastic free initiatives.

The Dartmouth Food Festival has also been looking at ways to prevent surplus food left over at the end of the Festival going to waste and will be working with Dartmouth and District Food Bank to ensure that any suitable food left over from the chefs demonstration tent, workshops and exhibitors can be collected and distributed by them.

The problem of over-packaging in the food and drink industry will be up for discussion in Saturday’s Eat Your Words’ session called ’Plastic pollution all wrapped up’.

The event at 3.30pm features chef Luke Holder who, fed up with the amount of unnecessary plastic packaging arriving in his kitchen, began tweeting photos of it using the hash tag #chefsagainstplastic.

The hashtag soon became a movement which has garnered significant support within the hospitality community and forced suppliers to switch to more sustainable methods.

Festival favourite, Orlando Murrin, will chair the event in which Luke will be joined by Craig Davidson (Dartmouth Food Festival’s Plastic-Free Champion) and Kate Ryder (owner of Dartmouth’s Café Alf Resco) to discuss their mission to reduce single-use plastics at source, how the food and drink industry is adapting and what more can be done.

Tickets are free but should be booked in advance - see Festival website for details at dartmouthfoodfestival.com.

Sheila Shribman, Dartmouth Food Festival chair said: "It’s clear that plastic pollution is having a catastrophic effect on our environment and, as organisers, it is vitally important to us that the Festival isn’t seen to add to the problem. 

We are committed to eliminating single-use plastics and promoting sustainability in everything we do. This runs across the board from the compostable or biodegradable serve-ware and packaging we require our traders to use, to how we dispose of our waste and even the biodegradable cable ties we’ll be using throughout the Festival site.

"We are working with a number of organisations to help reduce the Festival’s environmental impact but there are lots of things festival-goers can do to help. Please dispose of your rubbish thoughtfully, using recycling bins wherever possible.

“Bring a shopping bag and re-usable water bottle with you from home and if you haven’t got your own, then you can purchase one of our limited edition jute shopping bags or steel-spun water bottles from the Festival stall in the Royal Avenue Gardens. Don’t forget you will be able to fill up your bottles for free at various points around town."