Proud of Pride’s Green Credentials?

• Jun. 3 by Karl Stevens (0)

Birmingham Gay Pride 2010 flew off with the usual flurry of sequins and feathers this Bank Holiday weekend with a parade starting at Victoria Square in the City Centre.

With a weekend of fun and frolics now over, the Mardi Gras themed on ‘Equality over the Decades’ was enjoyed by an estimated 80,000 people who visited the city for the events, myself being one of them.

However, there was, when leaving the night clubs at 6am a noticeable difference with previous Gay Pride events.

An unusually high amount of waste and rubbish – particularly recyclable rubbish – left on the streets surrounding the Gay Village, resembling a ghost town.

A Street Waste Collection worker for Birmingham City Council, Matthew Clifford said:

“The waste this year is massive, I’ve been here for two years and it hasn’t been this bad before”

His thoughts resembled my own as in previous years there was an emphasis on recycling, particularly with the plastic glasses all were required to use for safety purposes.

For the previous three years, recycled polycarbonate glasses have been used for which revellers paid a £1 deposit which when redeemed would see the glass recycled and not left on the streets.

Although this scheme was running at this years event, take up was limited due to lack of publicity and awareness with bars and clubs also preferring to serve in single use plastic glasses.

Adam Kennedy, General Manager of one of Birmingham’s most popular nightclubs in the LGBT community DV8 said:

“Though we do support recycling and have our own policies to recycle throughout the year, the gay pride weekend saw us receive many complaints about the deposit scheme.”

He also said:

“We did enforce the scheme, however we did offer the disposable alternative for the customers who wished not to re-use glasses.”

Nobody directly from the Gay Pride Committee was available to comment.

A map showing some of the waste around the streets of the gay village is viewable here. If anybody has further images to add to the map please do get in touch.