Zero Waste Festival 2025

Reset, Rethink and Recharge at this years Zero Waste Festival
This isn’t your average festival — it’s a powerful coming-together of people. Whether you’re just beginning your low-waste journey or already deeply immersed in sustainable living, the Zero Waste Festival is a space to reconnect with purpose, swap ideas, and be part of something bigger. It’s where community, creativity and climate action collide — a vibrant, solutions-focused celebration of what’s possible when we take collective action.

Speaker Program overview

10:00 am: Children’s Show – To Be Revealed soon!

11:00 am: Unpacking Plastics: Australia’s Recycling Crisis

12:30 pm: Voices of the Future: Youth Taking Action

1:45 pm: Less Waste, Big Impact: Everyday Actions That Matter

3.15 pm: Stitching a Future Beyond Waste

4:30pm: Plates with Purpose: Cooking, Conversation & Change

Zero Waste Exhibitors and Information Stalls: 

Explore a world of sustainable solutions with our diverse lineup of Zero Waste exhibitors. Bring your cleaning supply containers to refill, your clothes to mend, your bike to repair and your blister packs to recycle, then stick around to see the other exhibitors and learn about cutting-edge recycling solutions, community crafters, activist groups and so much more—there’s something for everyone on their zero waste journey, our exhibitors have it all.

Details on the website here

Zero Waste Activities

Clothes Swap

Update your wardrobe and swap clothes, shoes and accessories. Bring up to six items to swap. This event is suitable for adults of any gender, age and size.

Drop off from 10-11am

Swap starts at 12pm

Please note: Items should be clean, free from faults, and of good quality with a long potential lifespan. No pyjamas, activewear or underwear.

*You must register to participate in this activity.

Book Swap

Anyone can give or take a book! Bring up to two books to swap. No extras! Please bring books other people are likely to want – so no dirty or damaged books, textbooks, encyclopedias, etc. Children’s books are welcome. 

Fabric Swap

• When buying or swapping fabric, length and width is really important (so you know what you can make from it). So we really need people to measure, roll/fold and label their fabric.

• Fabrics need to be a minimum of 1m long

• Limit of 5 fabrics per person

  *All left over fabric will be donated to The Fabric ReStore

Repair Café & Mending Circle

Give your favourite things a second life.

Join our hands-on mending circle where volunteers will help you repair clothes, textiles, and even soft toys. Learn easy fixes like button sewing and patching, Come along to our mending circle and learn how easy mending is to do yourself.  You will pick up skills you can use again and again.

*You must register to participate in this activity.

Recycling Centre 

Many items are recyclable, as long as they are collected and processed separately. Recycle your hard-to-recycle items with our dedicated Recycling Centre.

*check the website for details on items accepted - this will be update mid August

Zero Waste Hands on Fun

Kids or adults alike can get crafty and innovative  

• DIY produce bags to reduce unnecessary plastic waste with fruit and veggie

• Make Cards for Fathers day, or another special friend, out of recycled materials

• Learn about pollinators with dirtgirl and some local beetastic youth leaders

• Craft up some cardboard fun

• Stories and drawing with Bee Friendly Kids

Mini Spring Clean the City

Team up with fellow eco-warriors with Beach Patrol to collect, sort, and document litter along the riverbank. Not only will you help beautify our city, but you’ll also contribute to a powerful cause.

 4.30pm Plates with Purpose: Cooking, Conversation & Change

Food shouldn’t cost the earth — but right now it does, with too much of it ends up in landfill. While consumers are told to cut waste at home, the deeper story starts on farms, where supermarkets reject perfectly edible produce, leaving farmers with no market. Behind the glossy shelves lies a broken system — but changemakers like Farmers Pick, producers, and advocates are working to transform it.

Join zero-waste chef Simon Toohey for a live cooking demo and a panel of food champions exploring how we can back local growers, reduce waste, and build a food system that’s fair, sustainable, and delicious. After the food is served, stick around for an open networking session where innovators, creatives, and changemakers can connect and spark ideas. Food brings us together — but it’s the shared purpose that carries us forward.

Admission is free — but we need your support.

Thanks to generous grants and sponsorship, we’re able to keep the Zero Waste Festival free and accessible for everyone. But the cost of running the 2025 festival is higher than ever, and we need your help to break even and continue amplifying the community voice — advocating for real change, holding producers accountable, and pushing for a more sustainable, low-waste future.

If you can, please donate and help us keep the momentum for change alive.

Zero Waste Festival 2025 is proud to be a zero waste event.

To keep the festival zero waste, we encourage you to bring along a reusable bag, water bottle, and coffee cup. Food vendors will also be supplied with reusable plates and cutlery to help us avoid single-use waste. If you bring any waste to the event, we kindly ask you to take it home with you. Thank you for your cooperation!

Zero Waste Victoria acknowledges that we gather on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation, along the banks of the Birrarung/Yarra River, and pay our respects to their Elders, past and present.

The Zero Waste Festival is a FREE public event brought to you by Zero Waste Victoria. Proudly supported by Venue Partner Fed Square and Principal Event Partner The City of Melbourne.

EVENT PARTNERS