"This event is a crucial milestone towards a plastic free music scene."
While the Splendour In The Grass music festival was taking place just up the road, Green Music Australia and Positive Change For Marine Life, along with a very helpful group of artists, joined forces to clean up Byron Bay's Seven Mile Beach.
Among the clean up crew was Violent Soho bassist Luke Henery, Sahara Beck, Áine Tyrrell, Tay Oskee, Emma Bosworth and The Cutaways.
The clean up, which aimed to "highlight the impacts of plastic waste" saw a total of 12kg of waste removed from the beach in an hour, with a total of 2,435 items collected.
"Piece by piece is how we begin to undo the devastation done to our oceans. And one by one is how we do it," said Tyrrell of the clean up. "Myself and my children were counted as one of the many cleaning up our beaches last weekend!"
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
"Until you actually get your hands dirty, cleaning up plastic pollution, it’s easy to see this as an issue that’s far away," said Green Music Australia Executive Director Tim Hollo.
"But once you’ve been involved in a beach clean up, you never see a plastic bottle in the same light again. This event is a crucial milestone towards a plastic free music scene."
The event was a part of Green Music Australia's Plastic Free July initiative, which encourages ditching disposable water bottles across the music scene. Find out more about the campaign on their Facebook and Instagram.
The Music's Jessica Dale spoke with Hollo about the environmental impact of music festivals in a special report earlier this year, read it here.