The Future Of Partying
I sat down with Hadi Ahmadzadeh, the founder of ECODISCO, a sustainable nightlife consultancy company and concept party acclaimed for being the first ever club night in London to totally remove single use plastics. We spoke about ECODISCO’s journey, its aims, services and successes, Capitalism, Extinction Rebellion, situating his work within the rise and importance of environmental sustainability, and what the future holds for the company.
Hi Hadi. First of all, how would you describe what Ecodisco is? And could you tell us about its journey to becoming a concept party and consultancy?
To explain ECODISCO, I have to explain Tail and Twist because it grew out of this. So I am also technically one of the co-founders of Tail and Twist, which is a promotional company running parties since 2016. We began in a small bar in Angel, moved to Brick Lane, then to Shoreditch and then eventually we ran a series of events at Bussey Building in early 2018.
It was great, and there was this magic you get where you see everybody enjoying a space that you’ve spent all day working on. However, there was a sustainability contradiction which was affecting me. I’m a very sustainably conscious person, growing up spending loads of time in the outdoors camping and volunteering. You can put in as much effort in retaining your decor, but at the end of the day the event is going to produce a certain amount of plastic cups, straws, baggies, bottles, cigarette butts etc and all of this goes into one single waste stream because councils charge venues per bin to get rid of waste. Also, recycling is even more expensive and so some venues don’t even recycle because they don’t have the extra cash flow to pay, never mind composting or anything like that. At the end of the night I could see this massive clean up going on and whilst unhooking disco balls I’m seeing a total contrast and juxtaposition between that feeling earlier on at 2am when the lights are on and the disco is going off and you’re in euphoria. It’s bad enough it’s 7am and you’re feeling knackered.
It was only after scaling up to larger events that sustainability became an active problem. Upon our Bussey series in 2018, Tail and Twist began to evolve to be more sustainable. And we tried many things and got it wrong at first, like everyone does. For example, we thought we could use compostable cups and fell for green washing mania by replacing all cups with our own paper compostable ones. But the problem was they’re made from PLA which is a cornstarch based plastic, and there are only 3 compostable facilities in the UK. Overall, it was just a bad process logistically, involving loads of chemicals needed for decomposition, while also the fields of corn used to create PLA are one of the biggest reasons for deforestation. The fact they’re called compostables is very misleading. We also tried canned water instead of bottles on the bar, but there were loads of rules and regulations, where different councils required a certain amount of packaged water. That being said, it’s vital to note that Bussey is an amazing community led, cash-strapped venue; one of the only ones that is BAME led, and is constantly under threat. We were not expecting anything from them, and in this context we had no right to. They had pre-existing deals with different suppliers and you can’t expect them to change everything just for one event.
Anyhow, by the end of 2018 and our event series, I took a step back. While I had learnt a lot, we had begun earlier in the year to advertise ourselves as more sustainable, but I knew we had not really achieved what we’d wanted to. Like we had donated a percentage of ticket sales WWF and Plastic Oceans, but our events were still unsustainable. I had not achieved what I’d wanted to do, which is a positive experience from the start to the end of the night.
So by the turn of the year into 2019, I decided to work on something big that we could launch at a major venue with a blank space where we could do everything ourselves in London. Eventually after many many hours planning and researching, I found a unique system to launch. This was the steel cups system, whereby the cup would become a part of your ticket price.It would be looped around your neck, and they could either be kept for the price of £2.50 or have the money returned to them at the end of the night. It ended up being very successful. In June 2019, through Tail and Twist, we launched the ECODISCO concept party, and did it at Oval Space: a big venue with a 1000 capacity. We focused a lot of our energy on exposure rather than ticket sales, and by the end of it we ended up on BBC news and the night itself went very successfully. This was the birth of ECODISCO as a concept party. And so by the end of 2019, we had done 3 events that were essentially waste free, including a panel event. I say essentially waste free but we did have to recycle the cans the beer came out of and also had packaging used by the venue, but we could not control that since it relates to their suppliers.
At this point, going into this year, I felt like my work with Tail and Twist was kind of done. Through ECODISCO, the majority of Tail and Twist’s sustainability problems had been solved. ECODISCO was becoming its own entity naturally. I was watching others trying to use the concept that ECODISCO did and I was getting loads of emails asking for consultancy advice. I guess during that reflection time that we were all granted during lockdown, I decided to start up ECODISCO as its own company in June 2020. I reached an agreement with Tail and Twist co-founder Billie, whereby I would still carry on helping Tail and Twist, but he would take it on as his primary. I guess Tail and Twist is now an ECODISCO client in a way.
ECODISCO is now a concept party signed to Unity agency, so can be booked by people all over the world. It has now also become a consultancy, with the sole aim of providing systems and solutions for venues. Technically it is a sustainable nightlife consultancy company. I built a website, got it online, got it through social media channels, and within a few weeks at least 4 people messaged me saying that they want to get on board. And like at this point now, we're a team of around 7 or 8. I didn’t have to reach out to anybody.
And what do you offer as a consultancy?
We offer consultancy packages, ranging from audits, carbon footprinting services and new innovative systems to reduce waste such as reusable cup schemes. We are about to start piloting a reusable cup rental system with our very own sustainably produced reusable cup. We hope for this to come into action in 2021 if circumstances allow for it.
Could you explain the cup system to us?
So it is a scalable system starting in London. The idea is that you sign up multiple venues e.g. 3x 500 capacity venues who all want reusable cups but don’t have capacity to purchase them, or don’t have the required washers or other types of equipment. So we get an electric van and supply enough cups to cover all 3 venues for the weekend. Then, we collect the cups on the Monday lets say, and go off and wash them to then redeliver on the Tuesday or Wednesday. It will be funded by customers paying a deposit or levy (e.g. £1) on top of their first drinks or ticket price. After your first drink you go and clip the cup onto yourself, then once you go for your second drink you hand that one in and get another one, you don’t have to pay again for the cup. It keeps cups off the floor, is totally hygienic, and economically viable. It also makes the venue money and we will then encourage them to reinvest into carbon footprinting or switching to a renewable energy provider. This creates a small economy, and then we will eventually scale up to let’s say 50 venues in London. It is now a unique opportunity to build up these networks and get clubs and the press on board for next summer, whatever form the industry takes.
We will be an example of a business that can make money out of sustainability, but also help at-risk businesses save shit loads of money on single use plastic cups! Venues are suffering right now, and I cannot come out and demand that they use reusable cups in a way that further reduces revenues; this is about making sustainable changes whilst saving them money. We have to be innovative and brave within the fucked up system we are presented with.
We’re trying to design to move away from steel and towards plastic reusable cups made from repurposed or recycled plastic. I am saying repurposed or recycled not to be vague but because we may make it out of waste plastic from factories; virgin plastic that has a cut off that goes in the bin but shouldn’t. Or we might use ocean plastics depending on FDA approval and durability. I’ve got a nifty little addition to the cup which allows it to be clipped onto yourself without the use of the fabric holders that we designed for Tail & Twist. This will allow us to just have one product to maintain and distribute to venues.
Why are you moving away from steel?
Steel is the most sustainable material to use for cups, they last forever. They’re totally durable and infinitely recyclable. But the problem we have is when we have these thousands of cups delivered to loads of different venues, there is a lot of weight, health, and safety problems, and just other general logistical nightmares to do with council approval. This is why we’re switching to plastic cups made from recycled / repurposed plastic. We have got our own design, but want a community cup that everyone uses i.e not just a specific written design or logo for a specific festival such as Shambala or Glastonbury. This binds venues together; it is user friendly and ergonomic. They are also still very durable and so will be recycled, but we acknowledge that these cups will have a much shorter life span than the steel alternative that we use with Tail & Twist.
And so what other projects have or had you been working on since the formation of Ecodisco as a company in June?
Immediately after launching ECODISCO, we co-launched a project called Plastic Free Pints. Since it was lockdown, there were loads of takeaway pints ordered from pubs and bars. We sourced these steel pint cups made from recycled steel, made in Sheffield and turned into cups in Birmingham. We are making them available to pubs across London and the response has been positive. It was a big exposure campaign. You would pay a £5 deposit for the cups and take it home if you wanted and bring it back when you wanted a refill, or you give it back and get your fiver. With pubs closing at 10 and takeaway pints becoming more prevalent, this will start up again.
We had loads of projects planned before Covid, such as a day festival type format with 20 London DJs in Hackney Wick with Tail & Twist. Also, we were supposed to be at the Wide Awake festival at Brockwell. They set up a tent called the Climate Cafe and we were supposed to throw a party there. There have been many brands in touch with us. For next Summer, when the events industry returns, in whatever socially distanced format that is, I will be looking at implementing some of the projects we had been working on before Covid. There’s a venue opening in London that’s trying to solve all the problems with Covid. We are currently working with them to combine sustainability in this approach i.e. make sustainability remain top of agenda alongside Covid, as it is still just as urgent if not more immediate. So we'll be pushing this for next summer: to run events sustainably but with good health and safety measures. We are also hoping to work with a couple of small festivals who are hoping to scale up in the long-term but need support on how to do this sustainably from the bottom-up.
What has the impact of Ecodisco been thus far?
It’s been big throughout. After the first concept party, Me and Tail and Twist co-founder Billy were named in the Evening Standard Progress 1000 as two of the most influential people in London nightlife, alongside absolute legends such as Dom Chung, Glynn Fussell, Nadine and Skye from Pussy Palace, and more. I’m aiming for a trailblazing impact, to set the precedent for the London nightlife industry. There have been loads of companies and brands reacting and following on from what we have been doing; our work has influenced many. I guess without the demand there would be no consultancy. Inspired by what we did as the first club night to remove single use plastics, Pickle Factory and Oval Space became the first venues to remove them which we really hope they will be able to continue and even improve on.
There is one night I can think of that well encapsulates our impact. As we were progressing throughout 2019, we actually had a second BBC documentary, this time a 10 minute one of InsideOut. It followed us at the global climate strikes; we took a massive speaker and had loads of kids dancing to absolute bangers. We had our cups and were just chatting to people. On the same night we had a climate strike afterparty back at Bussey. It was wicked to go back to Bussey where I had seen all this waste from our previous event series. This time, at the end of the night there was literally nothing on the floor; we found like 50 cups and then would pick them up and wash them. Also, people would keep one cup through the night and reuse it multiple times, meaning the carbon footprint drops considerably as we only have to wash one cup per person rather than 3 or 4.
Talking of the climate strike, what are your thoughts on movements such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) ? What impact can they have in complementing what Ecodisco does?
There’s lot of different things that happen in the environmental sector. There’s direct impact like ECODISCO and finding solutions within industry. Then you've got exposure and awareness campaigns and government lobbying which is what XR is basically about, although now I think they’re a bit fragmented. Through their anti-government stuff, they’ve raised massive awareness, which is brilliant. Most surveys at the moment say that between 80-90% of people care about the state of the environment and want it to be urgently acted upon. This also applies in the events industry: everyone wants to make changes but it's not realistic to them, and lots of this can be explained by the fact that environmental progress isn’t subsidised well by the government. Public opinion is there, it’s about channelling and directing it towards government and bringing about policy change. This is of course going to be even harder as the nightlife industry is currently battling for funding just to stay alive!
Some will argue that within global capitalist structures, reducing plastic wastage in the London events industry is futile when looking at the macro-level ? What do you say to this? Do you think profit-seeking initiatives and sufficient environmental sustainability can go hand in hand?
The system does need to change, but this is something that people say off the bat, alongside the theory that you cannot be sustainable and make money. There is a lot more nuance to this.
What I’m saying doesn’t undermine the people calling for a change of system, as I said the system does need to change, but we need direct action whilst also shouting about it and calling for change. We can bring about systemic change from grass roots movements as well as lobbying and protesting. The fact that we have had such an impact not just on our industry, but also spillover effects on other industries (eg: we have worked with the Horniman and V&A Museums), shows that you can operate within the system and bring about sustainable changes, both tangible and cultural.
Finally, what are your aims and plans for the next year and beyond that?
Right now it’s all about using this time to make sure we come back and party in a better, more sustainable way. My overall lofty aim is for all music venues to remove all single use plastics and greenhouse gas emissions. This means moving venues to renewable energy contracts which we hope will become affordable due to the savings provided by our reusable cup system, which will be launched in London next year if all goes to plan. We will pilot it and do what we can within Covid guidelines e.g. socially distanced events. Or maybe through pub trials too. This all obviously depends on the extent to which the events industry is up and running next summer. By 2022, we want to have grown across as many clubs in london. By the end of 2022, I want to be branching to other cities and after that we’ll see what else is possible!
Interview by Soheil Rahimi