Disgusted with the rubbish left behind at Reading Festival

[mydogisthebest]

Every festival is the same, tons of rubbish left behind.

All those tents just left and most of them will be going to landfill they said this morning.

Considering the average festival goer is fairly young why do they not care about all the rubbish? The lazy so and so's can't even be bothered to take the tents down let alone carry them to the collection point.

Apparently there was also loads of food just left!

These are the youngsters that supposedly care about the planet and climate change. Yeah like hell they do. Some might but the majority just don't.

The mentality of buying a tent and food and other items and then just up and leaving them just beggars belief. The parents have obviously not taught values.

I used to live very close to where the V Festival was held and the amount of rubbish left behind used to amaze me every year.

Apparently it will take a team (no idea how many) 2 weeks to clear Reading.

It makes me so angry

I totally agree with you @mydogisthebest.
I've already posted on here about the tent burning and general loutish, horribleness on the Sunday night. My daughter was there and had an incredibly scary night.
She was going to leave her tent because her friends and all others were and she didn't feel like carrying it but brought it home in the end (with a little persuasion) to be used again. Just need to mend a bit of the pole as there was a stampede over it to a fight right next to her at one point.....
Reading festival is pretty horrendous in my opinion - huge health and safety and welfare issues I've already gone into elsewhere. Not somewhere young teens, or probably anyone who just wants a nice time, should be.

@gogohm

There's often wholly inadequate supplies of bins I've found, I took litter home with me but without a car this isn't always an option. Providing a biodegradable sack to each person (cost 20p) would be helpful, people can ten bag them rubbish and leave next to the overflowing bins. As for the tents, many collect them for homeless

Not true re the tents. I'm local and this post is being shared today:

I'd like to write an essay about the experience of tent-scavenging with Herts For Refugees at the Reading Festival site, on Monday and Tuesday, but I'm too knackered! Even though we got to salvage between 2000 and 2500 tents for refugees in Calais and Dunkerque, and a great number of sleeping bags, the main feeling of everyone concerned is - WTF?! The sheer waste, of so much stuff going into landfill, is absolutely obscene. Only a few dozen salvagers** were on-site as far as I know, and we barely scratched the surface. Most of the tents that are abandoned get bulldozed and sent to landfill, in spite of what seems to be a prevalent myth that 'they all get taken by charities'. Nope! Only a fraction. Besides which, we only took a certain type of pop-up tent that is appropriate for the recipients. Larger tents, of which there were many, and tents with the bendy supports threaded through, we couldn't take. Large, new family-size tents worth hundreds - all got bulldozed. Ditto thousands of sleeping mats, inflatable mattresses, folding chairs, abandoned clothes, etc etc.
Reading Festival, and all the other majors, need to start taking sustainability seriously, instead of the feeble window-dressing they indulge in at the moment. They have a sustainability and outreach department, but you'd hardly know it. According to someone at New Beginnings (a charity for the homeless in Reading, who also sent salvagers) they were utterly useless, didn't respond to communications, and it was only through persistence and connections that N.B. managed to get a team there at all.
*Edit: I forgot to mention that a proportion of the tents - maybe 20 to 25%, I don't know - are deliberately slashed up. There is apparently a 'tradition', on the last night, amongst some young idiot males, of running around slashing tents and destroying stuff. There's also a lot of ketchup poured over stuff, tents pissed in, and worse...
**apparently 80 volunteers, from Herts for Refugees, plus a few from other groups. But spread over a site of about 200 acres, it felt like a mere handful.

Throwaway society as pps have said; people throw out their whole kitchen when they buy a house, won't wear an outfit twice, throw food away when its fine etc. Same with tents it seems.

These are the youngsters that supposedly care about the planet and climate change. Yeah like hell they do. Some might but the majority just don't.

The air pollution from the festival is phenomenal. The whole town smells like a bonfire for five days

@zurala that's awful to read. Made me even more angry to be honest.

Just how much money did all those tents, mattresses, chairs, clothes etc cost.

I thought it bad enough that cheap tents were left behind but ones costing large amounts!

I can't bear waste of anything and just don't understand how people think waste like this is acceptable.

Wearing t shirts proclaiming environment concerns or vegan etc whilst behaviour in opposite manner, yep see it a lot at festivals.

They should stay and clean their own shit up. They walk away

@Naunet

Oh come on OP, they’re far too busy “educating” all those awful boomers (which now seems to cover anyone from the age of 30 plus), with all their percieved wisdom. They can’t be expected to take the time to clean up after themselves, I’m sure that’s what mummy is for, right?!

Indeed. They comment on boomers, waste, meat eating environment damage etc al

Meanwhile throw away and behave appallingly. Perhaps festivals should be fined heavily for this waste and additional unnecessary landfill.
Or just ban festivals that allow this to go on

There is something really distasteful about leaving your filth and mess around for some poor worker on £10 / hour to clear up. A really nasty entitlement. Goes along with the trend of treating service staff like crap. Not a good reflection on how we, as a society, are heading.

These are the youngsters that supposedly care about the planet and climate change. Yeah like hell they do. Some might but the majority just don't.

YABU for this. Not all young people have the same thoughts, do they? I'm early twenties and care about the environment having studied geography. It gave me more awareness and I'm conscious of my ecological footprint

I use charity shops and buy second hand when I can, live in a flat powered by renewable energy. Try and save water. Have plants in my garden. Don't buy fast fashion. Recycle. Don't buy plastic crap.

People leaving tents at festivals don't have the same mindset I do. So annoying when people use this nonsensical logic. Some people care , others don't, what makes you think tent-leavers are the ones saying they care?

@Suetully

These are the youngsters that supposedly care about the planet and climate change. Yeah like hell they do. Some might but the majority just don't

who said young people did care? Many young people would have the exact same attitudes to global warming or climate change etc as older adults and not give 2 hoots.
I agree with you though, there should be a rule that if the concert goers don't clean up the festivals are banned.

Exactly most people in general don't care, or aren't aware of the impact of their lifestyles. Or aren't able to change due to circumstances

I think festival organisers should hire out the tents themselves and take a deposit, so if you leave the tent, you lose £30 or whatever. No outside tents allowed.