Newport Carnival reveal sustainability goal

The carnival, which returns on June 10, has joined forces with Sustainable Newport as an official event partner to encourage food and drink vendors to swap to reusable items.

Traders serving drinks at the day-long event will be offered and strongly encouraged to use the ‘Newport Cup’, pint and half pint glasses, which are reusable alternatives to plastic and paper disposables.

The Newport Cup was launched at Newport Carnival 2019 and Sustainable Newport returned to the event in 2022, following a two-year-break due to Covid-19.

Having always worked closely with the event committee, this year Sustainable Newport has become an official partner for Newport Carnival, joining bin provider Luv Waste, which ensures at least 80 per cent of everything thrown away at the event gets recycled.

Sarah Syrda, stalls co-ordinator for the carnival, is working with Sustainable Newport’s Simone Whitfield to ensure all food and drink vendors are aware of expectations to use the Newport Cup and glasses wherever possible.

Simone, who is chairman of Sustainable Newport and plastics lead for the charity, said: “Sustainable Newport is proud to partner with the Newport Carnival to help share ideas on making the event more sustainable.

“When we started our journey to becoming a certified Surfers Against Sewerage Single Use Plastic Free community in 2019, we launched the Newport reusable cup at the carnival and our reusable pints at the Food Frenzy.

“At our last AGM, we had 492 cups and 518 pints in circulation in the community, which can be returned to our stand at any time to collect the £1 deposit back. It’s an essential part of our programme to reduce single use.

“In 2019 we also bought the Refill Scheme to Newport, and we now have 35 locations in and around Newport registered in the app to show they’ll fill your reusable water bottle for free, which is great on carnival day when the weather will hopefully be lovely and warm."

Newport was the first community in Telford & Wrekin to be awarded the Surfers Against Sewerage plastic-free community status.

It has since been joined by Madeley and Wellington, with other towns actively working to achieve the same to support the borough council’s Sustainable Telford and Wrekin programme.

This year is the 54th Newport Carnival and will kick off with stage and street entertainment at 10am, followed by the crowning of the King and Queen of the carnival.

The procession enters the town centre at midday, followed by a whole afternoon into the evening of music, stalls, fun and crafts.