A POPULAR festival venue has made a pledge to cut back on its single use plastics.

Sky Ocean Rescue and the Laine Pub Company have joined together to encourage visitors to Brighton Spiegeltent at the Brighton Fringe to reduce their single-use plastic usage.

Sky Ocean Rescue has delivered more than 40,000 reusable cups for the Laine Pub Company to use in the four bars they are operating at the Spiegeltent during the festival.

Brighton Fringe is England’s largest open access arts festival and will continue to run until June 2, having launched on May 3.

The Spiegeltent will be running events, at the Old Steine in Brighton, during the Fringe.

Visitors to Brighton Spiegeltent will be able to reuse the cups or return them to the collection bins located around the Spiegel Pleasure Gardens.

After the festival the cups will be transferred to Laine Pub Company’s seafront premises The Tempest and Fortune of War as the next step towards a solution for removing single use plastics from Brighton’s beaches.

Gavin George, chief executive of the Laine Pub Company said: “We’ve long admired the work of Sky Ocean Rescue and their aim to raise awareness of the issues affecting ocean health and the steps they have taken to eliminate all single-used plastics from their business by 2020.

“It’s a subject that’s close to our hearts, especially given the fact that we are a Brighton-based business and every day we see the effect that single use plastics has on our sea.

“The partnership with Sky Ocean Rescue is in keeping with the festival’s and our environmental policies – we were one of the first pub companies to ban plastic straws and have been instrumental in organising beach clean-ups in Brighton for many years.”

Fiona Ball, Sky Group’s head of inspirational business and Sky Ocean Rescue, added: “The partnership with Laine Pub Company is another great opportunity for us to highlight the need for people to reduce their usage of single-use plastic and help save our oceans.

Eight million tonnes of plastic enter the world’s oceans every year.

“That is largely made up of items such as single-use drinks cups which have been discarded.

“Finding ways to replace these with reusable options for festivals such as this one will make a huge difference.”