Tomorrowland, the long-lasting Belgian digital music pageant, has been battling ongoing points round single-use plastic cups in recent times, as environmental laws throughout Belgium have tightened.
For context, Belgium launched stricter waste laws for giant occasions in 2023. Underneath these guidelines, festivals are required to make use of reusable cups as an alternative of disposable plastic ones. Organisers should additionally obtain a excessive return fee, sometimes round 90%, to make sure cups are reused slightly than discarded. The intention of the coverage is to cut back plastic waste generated by main festivals. Occasions like Tomorrowland can use hundreds of thousands of cups over a single weekend, making single-use plastics a significant environmental concern.
Throughout 2024 the pageant, Tomorrowland continued utilizing single-use plastic cups instead of fully switching to a reusable system. Flemish authorities later dominated that this violated waste laws. In consequence, the pageant was fined and ordered handy over the monetary benefit gained through the use of cheaper disposable cups.
What The Unique Penalty Included
The unique penalty consisted of two components : First, a hard and fast administrative high quality for breaching environmental laws. Second, a further quantity designed to take away any financial profit Tomorrowland gained by not complying.
Authorities calculated this second determine by estimating how a lot cash the pageant saved through the use of disposable cups as an alternative of reusable ones. This included manufacturing, cleansing, and logistics prices related to reusable techniques. The mixed whole initially bumped into the a whole lot of hundreds of euros, prompting Tomorrowland to problem the calculation.
However, Tomorrowland didn’t dispute the breach itself. As a substitute, it challenged how the monetary profit had been calculated. Competition organisers argued that the unique estimate included broader operational prices that weren’t straight linked to cup utilization. After reviewing the case, Belgium’s enforcement physique agreed that the calculation was too broad. Whereas the violation was upheld, the monetary benefit element was revised downward, considerably lowering the entire quantity payable. Authorities stated the adjusted determine higher mirrored the precise financial savings tied particularly to disposable cups.
This was not Tomorrowland’s first conflict with environmental authorities over cups. In earlier years, the pageant confronted substantial fines, together with one case the place penalties exceeded €700,000, largely as a consequence of related “benefit elimination” calculations. Officers additionally warned that sanctions may improve additional if compliance didn’t enhance.
The Reusable Cup Controversy
Even after shifting towards reusable cups, Tomorrowland confronted renewed criticism.
In 2025, the pageant got here below scrutiny for introducing high-tech reusable cups containing digital chips. These chips have been designed to trace cup returns and enhance assortment charges. Competition goers have been sometimes charged a deposit, which may very well be reclaimed by returning the cup or stored as a memento. Nonetheless, Belgian officers and environmental teams raised issues that the chips relied on uncommon earth supplies, questioning whether or not the environmental price of manufacturing and recycling such cups outweighed their advantages.
The criticism highlighted a broader debate inside the pageant trade: whether or not advanced, technology-heavy sustainability options are more practical than easier reusable cup techniques already utilized by many different occasions.
Tomorrowland’s case has now grow to be a reference level in Belgium’s wider push to cut back pageant waste. It reveals how environmental guidelines are being enforced in apply, and the way organisers are being held accountable for the financial influence of non-compliance.
*Supply: Brussels Instances
