Festivals and litter

[Abra1d]

I've just realised a connection between two things I hadn't connected before. Festivals such as Glastonbury and the increased amount of fly-tipping and littering in lanes and roads.

It's because people are now conditioned to throw litter on the ground instead of putting it in a bin, isn't it?

You cannot send people to prison for dropping litter. You just can't.
Fines, maybe; but you have to catch them. That takes resources. Then you have to have consequences for non-payment, and a back up court procedure. It often ends up costing far more than any revenue might bring in.

We have a local festival near us.

You drive by the site on a Monday morning and you wonder how on earth it's ever going to be cleared up.

By Friday, it's gone

The clean up plans are all agreed before the council grants their licence

There are always a load of tents left, but they're so cheap I'm not surprised, local charities go in and take down anything useful

Well that's well and good that the organisers clean up, but why don't they encourage festival-goers to put it in bags/bins in the first place? Or do they?

I am always amazed at the amount of people that leave all their crap on the floor at the cinema.. scutter people

Yes, I think the bombing campaign and the removal of bins did also play a part in it.

I find it more than a little ironic that many festival goers are environmentalist/ Eco warrior types yet they leave that kind of mess.

Glastonbury certainly do encourage people to take all their camping equipment home and hand out bin bags for rubbish. They are usually points for people to leave tents if they don't want to take them home which are then sent to the third world.
When I was a guide it was drummed into us to take everything away with us so I would never leave anything and dispose of rubbish in bins.
Some festivals put a small deposit on drink cups that you get back if you return them. I'm sure lots of people don't bother but have seen kids collecting loads of cups to get the money back as those 10 or 20p add up.

I think it's an age thing. I've never been to Glasto but I do the occasional big rock festival and I do a lot of smaller ones.

Littering in the actual arena is a problem at all of them, as bins fill very quickly. Some organisers have constant teams on the go, some clear up afterwards (or often overnight for the following day). Debris seems to be an accepted part of this area (although it still makes me shudder!)

The campsites are a different story though. I tend to find that if the music is aimed at the older generation the campsite will normally be left clean and tidy, with bagged rubbish either taken to a designated area or left in neat piles to be collected by the cleanup teams. Where the audience is younger, the campsite tends to be left much messier. They seem to have a much more "throwaway" attitude. I am off to Sonisphere this weekend and dreading it.......

Yes, they very much encourage people to dispose of litter properly

There are bins everywhere, they pay 10p for every paper cup that's returned

But when 50,000 are crammed into a small space to watch 1 band, you can't get to the bins and unfortunately people will just drop it

People are encouraged to remove their tents, there are places where you can drop off your unwanted tents but people just don't, especially when it's been as muddy as it was at Glastonbury this year

Miaow I come from a town that was bombed very publicly by the IRA and we lost all our bins for many years. I still wouldn't dream of dropping litter on the floor, I take it home.........

I would never in a million years, have left behind my trusty tent in my festival going youth. I have raised my kids to be the same: the young Tinks return from their festivaling with a full complement of gear. Who are these wasteful idle people?

I don't know about other festivals, but around here shops tend to have special festival offers, £30ish will get you a cheap pop up tent, roll mat and sleeping bag.

Less than the price of a night in a B&B, most of the time the tents are shit and not fit for use more than once, festival goers can't be arsed to take them down or cart them home so they just abandon them.

I've been up there with a local charity to collect tents post festival, it's not pretty - some are used as toilets, they get slashed, buried in mud, etc. it's horrible

The clean up teams go in with tractors and stuff, flatten the lot, scoop it all up and it's taken away. Job done.

People shouldn't drop litter, or leave their tents, but they do. The organisers encourage people to take their tents, throw away their rubbish, but you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. It's not always the younger generation either

I hate how throwaway our society has become.

I think litter is a lot better than it used to be. I have a DVD of my local area (in a city) with footage from the 70s - it was dreadful! The becks are overflowing with rubbish, even rusty cars. Today they are lovely and clean and have lots of fish.

BearBehind What a strange thing to say.
Just going to a festival does not mean you drop litter or leave your tent behind. You can be an environmentalist/eco warrier and attend a festival and clean up after yourself, and probably others, perfectly well.