To think it is totally hypocritical of those people at Glastonbury

[Bearbehind]

To have cheered David Attenborough when he talked about saving the planet given the shit tip they leave the festival site in.

Glastonbury is very much better than other festivals for this, all caterers onsite use compostable plates and cutlery, and all bins have recycling and compost bins next to them.

The litter you see late at night in front of the stages is picked up by litter pickers early in the morning, who separate landfill, compost and recyclables. Campsites are left in a much better state than at most other large festivals, and are litter picked over several weeks afterwards, with waste separated as above, until the site is really clean.

Ive been a litter picker, got a free ticket. Couldn't have gone otherwise.

You can't access a bin in the midst of a 100000 strong crowd. The bottles of piss were the worst things to pick up.

They didnt sell any plastic bottles on site this year, they sold a million last time so that's a lot less; however you can't really police what people bring in, glass bottles would be dangerous. Not everyone who goes is environmentally conscious, and not everyone was listening to David Attenborough. It is bloody lazy though, although when I went all of the bins were overflowing so unless you wanted to take loads of empty packets home (a lot of people use public transport to get there so carrying stuff that won't fit in your bags is a pain) they leave them. You used to be able to volunteer for keeping the site clean in return for free tickets, not sure if they still do! It will be cleaned and returned to its primary use within 6 weeks. It is a shame how little regard people often have though, the river that runs through is checked every year after the festival and if too much has ended up in it the festival won't run again.

There may have been a cross post if indeed eavis and the organisers have asked for the stuff to be left to allow a systematic clean and recycle. Then fine.

There is still some hypocracy about the use of wipes etc though

Btw the biggest environmental impact of Glastonbury is apparently the transport people use to get there.

I just like that it’s “the most vegan festival” held on a dairy farm.

People pay a whole lot more lip service than they do action in a nutshell.

When people are paying the thick end of 270 a ticket, plus pitch fees for cars/vans, they hysteria bout paying litter pickers pales into insignificance really, it's all factored in.

Seeing as there weren’t enough bins provided, the place was plastic free (haha) and there were over an hours queue for the stand pipes to get water, the showers were closed for a large portion of the time to allow people to have drinking water.

The fire brigade also clear away and repurpose tents and equipment for charity and resell it back to festival goers.

I go to much smaller festivals where the culture is to leave the campsites completely free of rubbish. It can be done.

Brighton beach after Pride is awful.

But everyone seems to think it’s ok to chuck rubbish for someone else to deal with. In rural areas this is often locals, who put in a lot of unpaid and often dirty and sometimes dangerous work.

@DelphicOracle

There is literally no point being environmentally conscious for the rest of the year and then going to something like that.

I fucking hate this attitude. It’s like saying going vegetarian doesn’t help the planet if you still drink milk.

Or recycling isn’t worth it if you still use clingfilm.

Surely, any little helps!?! This isn’t an either or argument, it’s a sliding scale, and every bit we do is a step in the right direction- or at least not a step in the wrong direction.

Turning this into a positive, volunteers are going in today to retrieve tents, sleeping bags etc and these will be used by homeless and refugee charities to support those in need.

Yes, it would be ideal if people could package everything up nicely and take them to a drop off point, but in the absence of that, it's brilliant to see volunteers going in and doing something that supports those our government don't give a shit about.

Oh and a flannel plus small amount of water works, no need for wipes.

Bins .. as any terroist knows are very good places for putting naughty devices in, so the less bins around the better but in a crowd of that size its impractical anyway. Yes the litter waste people will be along later and clear it all up so sorted.

Great event!, ought to have Grade 1 listing Worthy Farm:)

I left late last night so can't talk about this morning, but I was quite surprised how clean it was. There are bins (recycling) EVERWHERE, and people were using them. The only real waste on the ground was paper cups, but again, not that many. What was great was the huge number of people using reusable water bottles, I don't think I saw anyone drinking out of a disposable one.

The trouble is that the ‘someone else will
Be around to clear it up’ thinking spreads to places like some NT picnic tables near us. There is no ‘someone else’ so that means locals have to do it. Same with the grass verges.

@Qsandmore Does it claim to be the most vegan festival? There are plenty of food stalls selling meat.

I totally agree viva. Like those prats that say unless you live in a hedge off grid you are in no position to comment on any green issues whatsoever. How does that help? If everyone does it will add up

I agree, OP. Having seen the wreckage, it is perfectly clear that words are cheap, when most of the people attending make no effort to leave with what they brought, and leave no footstep.

I was brought up to put my rubbish in a bin or bring it home. Unfortunately some people just don't think/are too pissed/stoned. I agree that too many bins in this day and age may well be a security hazard, however I'm sure next time the issue will be addressed.

The cinema we go to actually has a sign saying please leave your rubbish by your seat! It goes against everything I do, so I very carefully place my rubbish on the floor as if that makes it better

Those who clear up after Glasto are not 'poor sods', they are recompensed - see CassianAndor's post above. Also it isn't just for the rich and used to be very cheap at one time but inflation has pushed costs up. All sorts of people go.

I've not been to that festival and I won't now (my son has been a few times and stayed in a Winnebago, no idea what rubbish he left behind), but I've been to plenty of others and outdoor concerts and they are all mucky at the end.

I did have to laugh at the massive confetti cannons going off for some of the acts. Fair enough they’ll be biogradeable etc etc but it did seem like utter waste on top of all the resources needed to put on a show.

I'm really glad to hear that Glastonbury is making some changes to be more environmentally friendly. I think it is great that single use plastic bottles weren't available - it is a really positive step in the right direction.

I would like to see more tent refreshing companies setting up, so that all the 'single use' pop up tents could be cleaned and sold on again, as that would be another shit tonne of plastic fabrics that didn't end up in landfill.

The more attention we bring to all of this and the more high profile events start to make changes, the bigger the impact will be and we will all benefit.

I sort of agree OP, but it's more complicated than that; it's a systemic, structural issue. We need to completely rethink our industries, our consumerism and our mindsets to tackle saving the planet. Activism from the grassroots up is good and useful but action and change need to be top down as well or we'll get nowhere. I think this is what "climate emergency" is all about.

Not to mention huffing helium balloons, a diminishing substance, important for science and healthcare.