Zero-Waste EXIT

Zero Waste EXIT

Zero-waste does not mean zero festival.

EXIT Festival
Petrovaradin Fortress
Novi Sad · Serbia

A practical proposal for reducing disposable waste at EXIT Festival - while keeping the music, the people and the fortress experience intact.

Independent sustainability concept for EXIT Festival.

The festival

Festival
EXIT
Venue
Petrovaradin Fortress
City
Novi Sad, Serbia
Season
Traditionally July
Scale
40+ stages & festival zones
  1. 2000 Student movement EXIT began as a student movement connected to democracy and freedom in Serbia.
  2. 2001 Petrovaradin Fortress The festival moved up to the fortress above the Danube, where it has stayed.
  3. Today International festival An international summer music festival that contributes to Novi Sad’s cultural identity.

The fortress is a historic site on the Danube long before it is a festival venue. Whatever is dropped on it has to be carried back off it.

  • Main Stage
  • Dance Arena
  • Music & art stages
  • Food and drink stands
  • Social & educational programmes
  • Green EXIT activities

Section 01

The problem

A festival lasts days.
Some waste lasts much longer.

Most of what a festival throws away is disposable by design: made to be carried for one drink, one meal, one night. Sorted into ten streams, it becomes something you can actually redesign.

Hover or focus a stream to find its answer

Drink

Food

Smoking

Promotion

General

Why it matters here

  • Plastic stays in the environment for a long time after the festival ends.
  • Litter damages the appearance and cleanliness of a historic fortress.
  • Cigarette filters and small plastic fragments are difficult to collect.
  • Disposable packaging needs extra material and energy for a single use.
  • Badly separated waste makes recycling harder for everyone downstream.
  • Food and packaging waste can attract animals.
  • Large crowds make effective waste management more important, not less.

Packaging collected at EXIT recycling initiatives

Almost 50,000 2025

pieces of empty packaging

Collected through EXIT recycling initiatives. Collection already works, and it works at scale. The question this project asks is the one before it: what never has to be collected in the first place?

Approximate figure from the team’s research. Not an official EXIT statistic.

EXIT already recycles.
The question is: how do we create less waste in the first place?

Section 02

The solutions

Change the system,
not the festival.

How to read this page

  • Already at EXIT EXIT has done this. Documented in the team’s research.
  • Our proposal Proposed by the student team. Not current festival policy.
  • Concept to test An idea worth trying. Operational questions are still open.
  1. 01 Proposed · builds on a 2025 test

    One cup.
    All night.

    Replace single-use plastic drinking cups with a reusable hard-plastic or metal cup held by a deposit.

    1. Get cup
    2. Pay deposit
    3. Refill
    4. Return
    5. Deposit back

    Already at EXIT In 2025 EXIT introduced branded reusable cups during the Emergency EXIT performance. Visitors could keep them or hand them back to collection teams.

    The deposit is the part that does the work: a cup that is worth something comes back to the bar instead of ending up on the fortress. The reusable cup itself is not a new idea here, it has already been on site.

    EXIT tested branded reusable cups on a single performance in 2025. The deposit-and-return system around them is the team’s proposal, not something that has been run.

  2. 02 Proposed

    Refill.
    Don’t rebuy.

    Free water-refilling stations across the festival area, so a bottle you already own is the easiest option.

    1. Bring bottle
    2. Find station
    3. Refill free
    4. Keep it

    Carrying a reusable bottle only pays off if there is somewhere to fill it. Refill points would give it a reason to stay in the bag, and every bottle filled is one that never has to be bought, collected and sorted.

    The team proposes this. Water savings are not quantified anywhere in the research.

  3. 03 Proposed

    Scan it.
    Don’t print it.

    Move programme information from printed flyers to QR codes, on-site screens and social channels.

    1. QR on site
    2. Open on phone
    3. Nothing to drop

    Print has a short useful life and a long afterlife. The same information on a screen or behind a QR code stays available all weekend and leaves nothing to pick up, and the team’s research notes it could also reduce printing and distribution work.

    No cost saving is claimed here - the research gives no figures.

  4. 04 Proposed

    Serve food.
    Not plastic.

    Reduce disposable plastic plates and cutlery at food stands.

    1. Reusable plates
    2. Or paper alternatives
    3. Or food eaten by hand

    Three routes the team puts forward: reusable hard-plastic plates on a deposit, suitable cardboard or paper alternatives, and menu choices that simply do not need cutlery.

    Paper and cardboard alternatives are not automatically sustainable. They are listed as alternatives the team proposes, not as a solved answer.

  5. 05 Proposed

    Don’t leave it
    on the fortress.

    Clearly marked cigarette-disposal points where people actually smoke, plus portable ashtrays.

    1. Portable ashtray
    2. Marked point
    3. Collected

    Filters are among the hardest things on the site to collect: small, and easy to drop into gravel and stonework. Disposal has to be closer to hand than the ground is.

    Biodegradable-filter alternatives are mentioned in the research as an option. They do not solve cigarette pollution on their own.

  6. 06 Already used at EXIT · expand it

    Bring recycling
    to the crowd.

    Teams moving through the crowd with collection backpacks, taking recyclables straight from visitors’ hands.

    1. Team walks the zone
    2. Visitor hands it over
    3. Sorted on the spot

    Already at EXIT EXIT has already used teams carrying backpacks to collect cans, PET bottles and plastic cups directly from visitors.

    This is the clearest example of building on something that already works: the system exists, and the proposal is simply more of it, across more zones and more hours.

  7. 07 Proposed · builds on the existing system

    The right bin.
    In the right place.

    More clearly labelled separation bins next to the places that generate waste: stages, food areas and entrances.

    1. Near stages
    2. Near food
    3. Near entrances

    Already at EXIT EXIT already operates recycling stations across the festival zones. This is an expansion, not a new idea.

    The team’s argument is about distance: a bin a few steps away gets used, one on the other side of a zone often does not, and that gap is where a recyclable becomes general litter.

  8. 08 Concept to test

    Use less
    material.

    Where it is operationally and safely possible, explore lower-material access identification - for example temporary stamping instead of a wristband.

    The team raises this as an exploratory idea about material, not as a finished access system.

    Access control, payment and security requirements are not addressed by this idea. It is not claimed to be operationally suitable for every festival situation.

Illustrative scenario

What if we change
just one system?

Pick a waste stream, then move the system. This is an illustrative comparison of how a stream is handled - not a projection, not a calculation, and not an official figure.

Pick a waste stream
Move the system

More disposable More circular

Partly changed · Cups

Deposit in some zones

A deposit cup would run in part of the site while other bars stayed disposable. EXIT has put branded reusable cups on site once, during the 2025 Emergency EXIT performance, though without a deposit.

Read solution 01: One cup. All night.

Circular · Cups

The cup is the system

A deposit cup would be the normal way to be served, with return points beside the bars, and the cup worth something until it comes back.

Read solution 01: One cup. All night.

Circular · Bottles

Refill is the default

Free refill points would sit close enough to make a reusable bottle the obvious choice, with return machines catching the rest.

Read solution 02: Refill. Don’t rebuy.

Positions on this scale show a direction of change, not measured quantities. No tonnage, percentage or saving is being claimed.

Already at EXIT

EXIT is already
moving.

Five things the research documents EXIT doing. The proposals on this page start here, not from zero.

  • 01

    Reusable cup pilot

    Branded reusable cups used during an Emergency EXIT performance in 2025. Visitors could keep them or return them.

  • 02

    Mobile collection teams

    Backpack teams collecting PET bottles, cans and plastic cups directly from visitors.

  • 03

    Reverse-vending machines

    TOMRA machines used at festival locations for returning PET bottles and cans.

  • 04

    Recycling stations

    Dedicated recycling locations across the festival zones.

  • 05

    Visitor incentives

    Packaging returns encouraged through vouchers and rewards.

Already tested as an incentive model

  1. Return packaging
  2. At a return point
  3. Receive reward

The research does not specify which rewards, or that every visitor receives one.

Section 03

Recycle
spots

Find it. Use it.

Concept map · proposed network

A stylised diagram of the fortress plateau, not a survey. It shows where a collection network would have to sit to be used: on the paths people already walk, beside the stages and stands they already stand in.
  • Recycling point Type already at EXIT
  • Return machine Type already at EXIT
  • Water refill Type proposed by us
  • Cigarette point Type proposed by us

Select a point on the map, or read the full list below.

  1. Recycling point

    Main Stage field, north edge

    Suggested for the edge of the stage field: wherever a crowd stands densest, a separation bin has to be a few steps away to be used at all.

  2. Recycling point

    Food and drink stands

    Suggested beside the stands, where packaging, cutlery and food waste are all produced in the same few metres.

  3. Recycling point

    Central path junction

    Suggested at a crossing point, so that walking between zones passes a bin instead of avoiding one.

  4. Return machine

    West entrance

    Suggested at an entrance, for PET bottles and cans: arriving and leaving is when empties are being carried.

  5. Return machine

    Dance Arena approach

    Suggested on the walk between two large zones, for PET bottles and cans.

  6. Water refill

    Between Main Stage and stands

    Suggested where the crowd already queues for drinks, so filling a bottle is not a detour out of the evening.

  7. Water refill

    Rampart walk

    Suggested on the long walk along the ramparts, where carrying your own bottle is worth doing.

  8. Cigarette point

    Rampart viewpoint

    Suggested where people stop to look out and smoke, so disposal is closer to hand than the ground.

  9. Cigarette point

    Bar area edge

    Suggested at the edge of a bar area rather than on the way out of it.

Positions are suggestions by the student team. They are not official EXIT recycling locations and the geometry is illustrative.

Section 04

Join
the green team.

A cleaner festival needs more than bins. It needs people.

Express your interest in helping with the ideas on this page. This is a student project, not an official EXIT volunteer programme.

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Your details would only be used to contact you about this project.