The large-scale events market is responding to the increasing concern about plastic pollution by taking steps to minimise the impact of their events on the environment.

Helping them slash their use of single-use plastics are companies like Bluewater Africa Trailers, the mobile water station service offered by Bluewater Africa.

The company recently helped KAMERS/Makers cut back on single-use plastic, with 17 300 litres of purified drinking water supplied to visitors during the two six-day KAMERS/Makers events eliminating the need for the purchase of 34 600 plastic bottles of 500ml water.

The company was brought in by the organisers of the handcraft and design show, as part of its vision to remove all single-use plastic from the event, and Consol Glass joined the partnership to ensure that guests had a glass bottle for refilling with Bluewater’s purified water during their visit to the show.

“The Bluewater and Consol partnership has been the talk of the show at KAMERS/Makers! We are on a mission to cut out all single-use plastic at our events and partnering with these amazing brands to remove plastic water bottles and give each visitor a Consol Curvy glass bottle, to refill with pure, fresh drinking water at Bluewater’s trailers has been a triumphant step forward,” notes Charl du Preez, KAMERS/Makers Online Marketing Manager and Features Editor.

A Growing Trend

Bluewater Africa Trailers launched in September, and the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon was the first large-scale event to make use of the service, encouraging their runners to #carryyourown water bottles or hydration packs and refill along the route, rather than use the plastic sachets or purchase plastic water bottles at the finish venue.

Water dispensed from Bluewater Africa’s mobile water stations saved the use of plastics equivalent to that of 13 000 water sachets or 2600 standard water bottles.

Other events have taken a stand on plastic since then and used these trailers including the music festival Rocking the Daisies, and other sports events such as the African Centurion Walk, the Gun Run, and the STBB 4 Good MTB Challenge and the Twilight Run.

“Bluewater has put sustainability at the heart of its business mission and we are thrilled at the number of events embracing the opportunity to drastically reduce the amount of single-use plastic waste they generate, by using our innovative mobile water stations that supply water purified using our unique technology,” says James Steere, Executive Director for Bluewater Africa.