French clubs come together for campaign to go plastic-free

A number of France’s best-known clubs have thrown their support behind a campaign to cut out single-use plastics at venues.

Zero Plastic Club is the brainchild of environmental charity Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, with the campaign set to encourage nightclubs to completely eliminate the sale of single-use plastic water bottles within the next two years.

Among the clubs that have signed up to the campaign are Paris’ Rex Club, Badaboum and La Machine Du Moulin Rouge; Lyon’s Le Sucre; Bordeaux’s I-Boat; and Nantes’ Macadam.

In an open letter pledge, the clubs that signed up to the campaign said collectively: “With the support of Bye Bye Plastic Foundation, we’re choosing to improve our sector by taking concrete steps. We’re calling upon other clubs to voluntarily join us on this journey, and commit to eliminating plastic water bottles from their venues by the end of 2024. We don’t have time to wait around for laws to be created.

“By the end of 2024, we choose to become key actors of the environmental transition for our spaces and for our communities, despite the indisputable risk we run of losing a major income source. Live music is one of the most polluting cultural sectors. There is a long way to go until our economy and society becomes environmentally friendly. This action is only the first step on a much longer path; a path which can only be walked collectively.”

For more on the discussion around the use of single-use plastics in nightclubs, revisit an opinion piece on the matter published by DJ Mag in 2019.