Along with the musical likes of DELUSH, The Academic, KhakiKid, Orla Gartland, Junior Brother, Mundy, SexyTadgh and Madra Salach – we’re still buzzing from the latter’s killer version of Sinéad’s ‘Black Boys On Mopeds’ – the Hot Press Chat Room @ Electric Picnic also hosted some fascinating panel discussions.

Squaring up on Saturday afternoon to Kneecap and holding its own was the Why We Must Not Fail On Climate Targets five-way, which found MC Stuart Clark joined on stage by Stephen Walsh (Re-turn Marketing and Communications manager); Professor Laurence Gill (Chair of Environmental Engineering at TCD); Shannen Healy (social media de-influencer); and special guest with guitar David Keenan whose words of wisdom were accompanied by some choice tunes.

Stephen Walsh, Professor Laurence Gill, Shannen Healy, Stuart Clark and David Keenan in the Hot Press Chatroom at Electric Picnic on August 30th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

We started by asking Stephen Walsh about Re-turn’s presence at the Picnic and how many plastic bottles and aluminium and steel cans you’ve been feeding into their 2,338 deposit return machines nationwide.

“The scheme only launched in February 2024, so this is our second year at the Picnic,” Stephen says. “We’ve orange return bins all over the festival site. If you find our stand near the funfair, our staff are there to answer your questions. You might even get a sustainable bucket hat! We’re here to win the hearts and minds of consumers. We also have volunteers picking up litter and going through the other bins to see if there are any cans or bottles in them.

“To date, Ireland has returned over 1.8 billion containers. By this time last year it was around 300 million, so you can see how people are becoming more mindful of what to do with them.”

There’s a lot to choose from but what would Laurence’s key environmental concerns be at the moment?

“We have major climate, biodiversity and resource crises, ” he replies. “The planet has a growing population and people wanting higher lifestyles. Whether it’s water, energy or critical materials, there’s a finite amount of resources. The trajectories are not good. In Ireland, we’re supposed to cut our greenhouse emissions by 50% by 2030. At the moment we’re at 26%, 27%.

“There’s no way we’re going to make 50%. Trump is going to have a big impact by telling oil companies that they continue with their drilling programmes. There’s going to be increased flooding, there are going to be more wildfires.”

That’s a pretty bleak assessment. Are there any straws we can grasp at?

“I’m an engineer and the pace of change at the moment when it comes to cutting edge science and technology is unbelievable,” Laurence resumes. “It’s technology – you know, the Industrial Revolution, mining, looking for coal and gas etc. etc. – that got us into this mess and I’m a believer that technology can get us out of it too.

“The climate has always been changing but it’s changing at a far faster rate than it used to. There are lots of things we can do to mitigate against that – use more renewables like wind energy, adapt how you travel, even take less photos. That’s all energy going up into the cloud.

“But humans are amazing. We’re very ingenious when we work together. And sustainability is much more in people and governments’ minds now than it was twenty years ago. So I’m cautiously optimistic that the technology will catch up and eventually provide solutions.”

Asked why she describes herself as a de-influencer, Shannen explains that, “Everyone knows the term influencer and they would influence people to buy and consume different things. And I want to be the opposite of that. So I came across the term de-influencer and it really resonated with me. I’m trying to persuade you to cut down on your consumerism. And I’m trying to make you think about climate change as welll. It’s twofold.”

She’s far too modest to say it herself but one of Shannen’s @_greengal TikTok videos has been viewed over eleven million times.

@_greengal Bleeding your radiators to remove air pockets is really important for ensuring your wet central heating system is working correctly. This means you will save money on your bills as the rads will got hotter and you won’t need the heating on as much 🔥 #sustainability #heating #radiator #bleedyourradiators #savemoneytips #energysaving #tipsonenergysaving #towerenergysaving ♬ original sound - Shannen🦋

“That was my ‘Save Money and Energy by Bleeding Your Radiators’ video,” she laughs. “I was like, ‘If you do this, your heating system will run more efficiently and your bills will be cheaper because it’ll take less energy to heat up the same amount of space.’ And, yeah, I got eleven million views. It’s crazy!”

Billie Eilish scrutinised the Picnic’s sustainability plan before agreeing to play there for the first time in 2019. How green does David Keenan think the music business is?

“You have to separate the tiers of artists,” he replies. “The likes of Coldplay and Massive Attack are multimillionaires, so they’re in a position where they can go green and emission free. In terms of merch, my last couple of batches of t-shirts have been sustainable and the confetti bombs I’m using tonight on stage are environmentally friendly.

“There’s so much pressure on the individual who may be struggling to make ends meet on a weekly basis. Yes, people should be held accountable but what about these corporations who are wreaking havoc on our planet, and making massive profits in the process? Another really important point is that we have to be able to communicate with each other rather than preaching perfectionism.”

A constant theme running through David’s work is the importance of nature. When did he really start to notice his surroundings.

“I grew up in Dundalk while it was still suffering a major hangover from The Troubles,” he resumes. “Going for walks in the fields by myself or with my grandfather and his dogs down by the river was my reprieve from that. Starting a relationship with the land – and by that I mean the wilderness, not manicured parks or gardens – is one of the most important things you can do in life and feeds into everything we’re talking about today.”

Performing new single ‘50 Quid Man’, David describes it as “an eco-friendly song which came to me one day where I’m living now in Kells in Kilkenny.”

Can he remember the whys, wherefores and geographical location of everything he’s written?”

“I was actually in the nude when I wrote that!” he laughs. “But, yeah, it’s sensory like when you have a good childhood memory and a smell comes back. A piece of music brings you back to a state of mind. I can remember everything; what I was wearing… and what I wasn’t wearing!”

Have the panel made any changes to their lifestyles in order to be more sustainable?

“My page,” Shannen proffers, “is about small changes we can make every day that make a huge impact. I use Vinted and Depop, which is still consuming even though they’re second-hand, but it’s far better than buying new. I try not to drive as frequently as I had been. I’ve really been focusing on food waste because a huge amount of resources go into food.”

“Everything I’m wearing at the moment is charity shop couture; giving something a new life,” David says. “We recycle at home and I take public transport a lot.”

“Working as I do for Re-turn, no can or bottle will ever go in the recycling bin!” Stephen smiles. “I totally agree that it’s the small changes that make a huge difference. By putting your drink into one of the orange bins here at the Picnic, you’re adding to the €260,000 that Re-turn For Children has fundraised for six charities.

“Bring a reuseable coffee cup, drive less, work remotely. It’s all cutting down on emissions.”

“Sometimes I start talking about science and can see people switching off,” Laurence notes. “So a few weeks ago we organised Dance Of The Carbon Cycles in Collins Barracks in Dublin. We had a hundred people folk dancing, fifty musicians and have made a film about it. I want to do more of that type of thing to get our work out there in a more entertaining fashion.”

Switching for a moment to activism, do we need an Irish Just Stop Oil?

“Yeah, definitely,” David nods. “We’ve seen it with the Irish artistic community standing up and supporting Palestine and the big Free Palestine marches. We need to take to the streets with any issue like that. People power, you know?

“You have to follow the money and the vested interests. Climate change could be solved if it wasn’t always about profits and political expediency.”

Have the panel been anywhere and seen a sustainability initiative that’s impressed them?

“From a Re-turn perspective, Germany comes up a lot,” Stephen says. “Ten years ago when I was in Berlin, there were people collecting bottles. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s incredible. We need something like that in Ireland.’ Which we’ve now got.”

Re-turn at Electric Picnic on August 31st, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

“There are towns in Ireland which have partnered with Go Cup to completely get rid of takeaway cups,” Shannen observes. “The whole community has got behind it. It’s actually cheaper for cafés and restaurants not to be buying these single use items. It’s also massively reduced litter.

“In France, there are loads of grants for upcycling and repairing your clothes. It’s good for the circular economy and supports an art that’s dying out. The French have also introduced an Anti-Fast Fashion Law. If you’re an influencer or content creator there and promoting it, you can be fined.”

With a maximum penalty of €100,000, the new legislation has real teeth.

Passed by the French Senate in June with low-cost, high-volume fashion giants like SHEIN and Temu in mind, there’s a €5 levy on each fast fashion garment which by 2030 will rise to €10. All the revenue from these taxes will go to support sustainable French fashion producers.

An eco-score system is also being introduced so consumers can see at a glance the environmental footprint of clothing. Hopefully it’ll become the EU norm.

“Until recently Ireland had been very good with regards to wind energy but all of a sudden those plans are being shelved,” Laurence rues. “It’s depressing thinking of all that future wind energy going to waste.

“What heartens me is some of the cutting edge stuff that’s coming down the track. For example, I think we’re going to be driving around in hydrogen cars in the next twenty years.”

Shannen is part of the recently launched Project Dandelion which has some heavyweight leadership.

“It’s been founded by Mary Robinson and is the first female-led campaign for climate justice worldwide,” she explains. “As Mary says, ‘Every single issue comes back to climate change.’ If you want to join, you can sign up online and become a dandelion. A very interesting initiative they have at the moment is ‘Interwoven’. It’s people by hand or digitally creating a square patch which will become part of a massive blanket that will be sent to the next COP. It’s bringing people together and creating a massive community.”

Has she met the former president?

“Yes, in May this year at the Climate & Nature Conference in Dublin,” Shannen enthuses. “I also had the pleasure  of interviewing her for my sustainability page. She was just amazing.

“I’ve got my dandelion pin on. The dandelion is seen as a weed and something you don’t want in the grass. Try as hard as you might to get rid of it, it will keep coming back. So Mary’s taken that as a symbol of hope. That’s what she’s trying to get out there; there is hope for climate justice.”

Finally, as they close in on their two billionth container, what other Re-turn initiatives can we look forward to?

“We’re in the process of rolling out bulk vending machines,” Stephen Walsh reveals. “Four are already in place and within eighteen months there’ll be at least fifty of them around the country. It’ll make it a lot easier for community groups like Tidy Towns or the GAA to get those deposits back and fundraise. We’ve more plans coming down the line, so stay tuned!”

We most certainly will…

Re-turn at Electric Picnic 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

Many Happy Re-turns

During the Electric Picnic weekend, Re-turn collected a staggering 545,000 plastic bottles and aluminium cans with the deposits from them going to some great causes.

In total, twelve tonnes of high-quality material were diverted from general waste and sent to recycling facilities.

Along with 250-plus branded bins and six onsite Reverse Vending Machines, the cleanup was facilitated by more than 200 Re-turn For Children volunteers who included members of Killeshin GAA and Meath Camogie.

The Re-turn team also ran a stand where festival-goers were able to play educational games and ask questions about the Deposit Return Scheme.

“I would like to thank all of the volunteers, clubs, and festival goers for embracing this initiative and helping us to collect over half a million bottles and cans,” enthuses Re-turn CEO Ciaran Foley. “Large scale event like Electric Picnic show how collective effort can make a big impact for the circular economy. The impressive volume of material can now be recycled to help Ireland’s sustainability goals.”

And so say all of us!