Revealed: the hidden cost of festivals to the bakery industry
Festival organisers, caterers and event suppliers are being urged to be more responsible with reusable equipment after 20,000 bread baskets and dollies were recovered from outdoor sites.
“When they are taken out of circulation or, worse, sent to landfill, it creates unnecessary waste and forces the production of replacement equipment. That has a direct environmental and financial cost.”
Bakers Basco, a not-for-profit organisation set up by UK bakeries to manage a shared pool of baskets and dollies, has retrieved 18,438 baskets and 1,690 dollies from event locations including Glastonbury over the past year.
The call for organisers, suppliers and traders to be extra vigilant came as new annual figures revealed Bakers Basco had kept overall equipment loss rates below 10% despite the continued challenges posed by misuse, theft, and illegal recycling.
The organisation said thousands of baskets and dollies go missing during the outdoor events season each summer. Equipment is often taken off site, misused by traders or caterers, or incorrectly repurposed for storage and display, Bakers Basco explained. In many cases, items are discarded and sent to landfill.
“Each of these baskets and dollies is built to last for years and complete hundreds of trips within the supply chain,” explained Bakers Basco national investigations manager Stacey Brown. “When they are taken out of circulation or, worse, sent to landfill, it creates unnecessary waste and forces the production of replacement equipment. That has a direct environmental and financial cost.”
Most of the items recovered in the past year were traced to markets and wholesale markets (8,700) and caterers (4,300), with others at events including Glastonbury (687 items) and horse racing fixtures (412).
Bakers Basco offers free collection of its equipment and is calling on the events supply chain, from organisers to suppliers and traders, to be vigilant and report misuse.
“These items are not disposable and they’re not designed for general use,” Brown added. “They play a vital role in a circular economy and keeping them in that system is key to reducing waste.”
Bakers Basco also announced it has increased its tracking capabilities across Ireland as figures reveal a rise in enforcement activity and a concentrated hotspot of equipment misuse in Belfast.
During its latest enforcement visit, Bakers Basco’s investigations team recovered 1,326 baskets and 1,097 dollies. More than 80 baskets were found outside shops in central Belfast and are all believed to be linked to a bakery operation delivering into the region from England on a weekly basis.
“This latest operation shows just how targeted and persistent misuse can be in specific locations,” said Brown. “The volume of equipment recovered in Belfast alone demonstrates the importance of continued vigilance and industry collaboration.”
To further strengthen its enforcement capabilities, Bakers Basco has increased tracker deployment across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, doubling its tracking capacity in the region.
Such activity is helping the organisation keep equipment loss rates below 10% despite the continued challenges posed by equipment misuse, theft and illegal recycling.
The latest annual figures show gross attrition rates of 9.9% for baskets and 9.7% for dollies. When recycled damages are excluded, net attrition rates stand at 7% for baskets and 7.2% for dollies.
“While we would always like to see attrition rates fall further, maintaining losses below 10% despite ongoing misuse and theft challenges is a positive result,” said Bakers Basco general manager Paul Empson.
“These latest figures demonstrate the effectiveness of our recovery programmes and the continued commitment of our members and investigators to protecting the bakery industry’s shared equipment pool.”
