Summer Concerts, Plastic Bottles

by Kristin Kitson

March 31st, 2008

It’s almost summer again (well, hopefully), and for many of us, this means concert season. A time we can visit our favorite venues packed full of memories, echoes of a song from 10 years ago, and, oh yeah — those empty plastic beer bottles and left over waste from the last artist’s tour entourage.

In today’s growing greener society, many people are talking about how “earth friendly” they are becoming. Yet, ironically enough, these same people are guilty of leaving those empty plastic beer bottles on concert lawns or littering the paper from their soft pretzel with cheese.

Unfortunately, while some concert goers aren’t doing the little things they could to help the earth, at least some of the artist they pay top dollar to see, are. Many of today’s most popular musicians are taking great efforts in doing their part to save the delicate earth we live on.

In the March 29 issue of Billboard Magazine – The GREEN ISSUE, Billboard named their Green10, today’s top 10 artists making a difference with environmental issues.

Artists including Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson, Mana, Dave Matthews Band, KT Tunstall, Pearl Jam, Serj Tankian from System of a Down, Radiohead, Missy Higgins and The Roots have created numerous foundations like Reverb, known for helping music tours reduce waste, find carbon neutral venues, become more energy efficient and sell eco-friendly merchandise to fans.

All of the artists are speaking out for the environment through their songs, web sites and actions – which will hopefully help educate fans about becoming more ecologically conscious. And, if musicians leading movement trends from our past repeat themselves, we might just be in for a sunny, empty plastic beer bottle free concert future!