Sustainability-focused under-18s club night launched by teen DJ Sam Seven

A young Warwickshire DJ has founded a new, sustainability-focused under-18s club night.

Sam Seven, 15, was inspired to start the Wasted (short for ‘Waste Education’) club night by his mutual passion for music and environmental causes.

Plastic is banned at the events, all signs and noticeboards are made exclusively from recycled materials, and clubbers are encouraged to car share to get there.

Seven has also started to look into biodegradable glowsticks, which he told the BBC are “potentially one of the worst things” for the environment, but they are “super important” at a rave.

He said his impetus for starting the event was to make sustainability and caring about the environment as appealing as possible, because it was becoming increasingly imperative. “Ultimately, as a 15-year-old, this is about my future,” he said.

Beyond sustainability, the Wasted club nights also promote a lot of the core philosophies at the heart of rave culture when it first started, including community and togetherness, as well as positive mental health.

So far, there have been two Wasted club nights, both at the Playbox Theatre in Warwick, the most recent of which was in January.

Last year, Massive Attack’s climate action concert in Bristol last summer resulted in “unprecedented” reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.The ACT 1.5 event’s decarbonisation measures included a 100% battery-powered production, 100% vegan catering and extra public transportation. The concert’s initiatives are reported to have reduced emissions related to power by 98%, food and catering by 89%, equipment management by 70% and artist travel by 73%.