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

@Chumleymouse

I don’t see the difference in bringing it home and putting it in the bin , or leaving it there and someone being paid to put it in the bin , it’s still going to the land fill whichever way.

You’re so entitled that you think it’s reasonable for someone else to clear up your rubbish? You’re part of the problem

The difference between that and Reading (apart from size) is that everyone has their vehicle next to their tent so if you CBA to walk to the bins you just chuck it in your car/van and take it home.

We’ve just come back from Carfest where you can’t drive into the camping area and there is a 15-30 min walk up a steep hill to get to your car with all your kit. The site was spotless when we left yesterday (and we were among the last to go!) No rubbish, no tents. But it is a smaller festival (about 25,000 visitors per day, of which many are day visitors- I don’t know how many were camping) and an older demographic of middle aged adults and families.

I never said I left any rubbish behind ?

@Lalliella, and you are so short sighted that you can't see that people can't get their rubbish home and you are cutting off employment for people.

As a "boomer" (sic) I am constantly blamed by the young 'uns for the state of the planet, the economy, etc yet the tonnes of litter left everywhere by them appear to be a different issue entirely

So true. This oh so "tolerant of everyone and everything" generation is very intolerant of other people and the choices they make if they go against their own

@AlrightThereSkippy

I've also noticed the secondary school where I live lets out and the bushes are filled with crappy junk food wrappers within half an hour. The kids there also wear unethical sports brands and have new stuff every year. It does worry me, as I genuinely thought things were changing. Yes, I try to do my bit and try to educate my younger DCs about it too and do litter picks with them too, but we live in a fancy commuter belt town where you'd think kids would be pretty woke. So it is a worry. Maybe they've given up and think nothing can be done now, which I don't entirely blame them for as it's everywhere in the media. Or maybe they think it's not up to them but to the grown ups, who they think aren't doing enough, which I can't really blame them for as that message is also all over the media.

It was like this when I was growing up re the litter. The residents near the school I went to would regularly complain about it, and we’d get regular tellings off in assembly and one year were banned from leaving the premises at lunch time because of it. It’s a losing battle, a bit like trying to get parents not to park like arses during school pick up and drop offs.

YABU blaming it on the young one @mydogisthebest.

Ever been to a family friendly festival? So much rubbish left behind there too. It's a societal problem not just young people.

The problem is you can pick up a naff tent for less than £30.
Where as 20 years ago they would be more like £100, or the equivalent of, but you would be getting a better quality tent.

Basically suppliers (mentioning no names —Amazon—) need to stop selling cheap, naff crap!

What an utter waste to buy something like a tent and just leave it behind because you're too bone idle to take it down. The attitude that would lead to someone doing that ("I'll just buy another tent") is the antithesis of environmental responsibility.

I totally agree but this it's just an extension of fast fashion. Buy cheap, wear once or twice, chuck it in the bin. Cheap festival tents are £20. At that price, it's a disposable item which you just buy new for each festival, it's a tiny fraction of the price of the ticket. Tents are very hard to recycle as they are made of so many different elements and types of plastic.

Also, recycle should only be done when you can't reduce, or re-use.

I totally agree but this it's just an extension of fast fashion. Buy cheap, wear once or twice, chuck it in the bin.

But that's also wrong. Lots of people are advocating to avoid fast fashion precisely because it's so unsustainable.

Just because fast fashion exists, that's not an excuse to treat everything else s disposable too.

@Batsaboutcats

The problem is you can pick up a naff tent for less than £30. Where as 20 years ago they would be more like £100, or the equivalent of, but you would be getting a better quality tent.

Basically suppliers (mentioning no names —Amazon—) need to stop selling cheap, naff crap!

I bought a tent for £30 in 2000, when I was at uni. It's still usable today (and has been used by many family members in the years since).

It’s not enough that people pick up their litter or bin their own tents. We need to reduce the waste and wasteful convenience culture.

The cost of purchasing a tent needs to cover the environmental cost (if that is even possible with a plastic tent) and make it an investment not a throw away item.

So they need to be either (organic) cotton and biodegradable or expensive man made fabric so that people need to repair them.

I’d support a high rate of VAT / tax on certain items like plastic tents/ chairs etc that is ring fenced for recycling/ environmental projects to raise prices and stop tents etc being disposable.

The first step has got to be banning cheap tents. If young people have had to pay £60 or more for a tent they might think twice about leaving it.
All festivals should be charging extra to cover Marshalls and anyone caught setting fires or trying to destroy any tents should have their details passed to the police - isn’t it a criminal offence to endanger lives?

But personally I think some of these festivals have got out of hand now, too big and causing too many issues.

@BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand

I totally agree but this it's just an extension of fast fashion. Buy cheap, wear once or twice, chuck it in the bin.

But that's also wrong. Lots of people are advocating to avoid fast fashion precisely because it's so unsustainable.

Just because fast fashion exists, that's not an excuse to treat everything else s disposable too.

Obviously not and I am not a fan of fast fashion in any way, shape or form.

But then again, a weekend at the Reading Festival is my idea of hell. I'm about 30 years too old for a start.

But the kids who are at these festivals are the ones shopping in Shein, and Asos, and H&M and all the other cheapie shops, posting their selfies on Insta and not being seen in the same outfit twice. When you've fully bought into that ethos, what's so awful about a disposable tent?

@RandomUser72

Regular name changer. OP, my DD planned to collect bags of litter and take part in the clean up. She’s 17 and went to Reading for the first time this year. We had planned to collect her on Monday morning but she rang us at 4am very distressed because people were setting fire to tents, exploding aerosol cans and throwing open bottles of urine around the camp site. We immediately left to pick her up and I’m afraid she didn’t take her tent or rubbish with her. She felt very vulnerable and for specific reasons that I won’t go into was on the brink of being left alone in this environment.

She camped for 5 nights and the official music blared out constantly except for 4 hours between 4am to 8am. She doesn’t do drugs and drank only moderately but the chaotic and frankly dangerous festival environment is not conducive to young people being able to look after themselves properly let alone caring for the environment after often several days of living like this. Many of the young people we saw were wandering around like the living dead. It was pretty horrific.

I think there are some utter shits attending festivals who simply do not care about anything but I also feel that it’s incredibly hard for a long stay at a festival to end up being anything other than an exercise in self preservation.

On a purely practical level lugging a huge black sack of rubbish along with tent, chair, back pack etc on a long train when you’re barely functioning after days without sleep just isn’t going to happen. It’s a reflection in many cases, IMO of the chaotic and ill conceived festival experience rather than an indictment of the majority of individual festival goers.

I do understand that if a festival turns into the 1994 Quidditch World Cup that getting your daughter out alive supersedes all other considerations.

The responsibility however lies with the morons who were behaving like this, and with the organisers who were responsible for security.

They're all too drunk/hungover/high to care...

Pretty sure that's it really. The ones who planned on cleaning up after themselves fee so shit on the last day that they find themselves no longer caring.

I think thy should add at least £100 per ticket for clear up the rubbish left behind at festival.

The amount of hypocrisy from these people about the 'damage' being done to the world, while at the same time leaving boat loads of rubbish at any event they attend.

@Lalliella Tue 31-Aug-21 11:41:17
"Chumleymouse
I don’t see the difference in bringing it home and putting it in the bin , or leaving it there and someone being paid to put it in the bin , it’s still going to the land fill whichever way."
You’re so entitled that you think it’s reasonable for someone else to clear up your rubbish? You’re part of the problem

hang on.....single use and binned is the problem. The location of the bin isn't relevant

As a previous poster said it’s like the Wild West at night time , if you’ve never been it’s hard to imagine. Young people just going crazy for a weekend. All night raves with about 30000 people going mental, booze ,drugs , Hardley any sleep no showers , I’ll not mention the toilets 💩. As a lot of people. Don’t use them .The rubbish…….. stealing….if it’s raining it’s even worse. I’m not sure many people there are thinking about recycling……….

Re the age thing.

Festivals have been around for many many years. I'm late 40s and festivals were a thing when I was a teen. They were a thing way before that too,

Festivals have always had the same issue with tents and rubbish left behind. Go decades back and older people complained of exactly the same issues.

So surely some of those older ones are always the same ones who were younger back then.

Maybe people just grow up and become a bit more responsible.
Or maybe people just grow up and like to lay the blame on the youngsters. 🤷‍♀️

But it certainly isn't a new problem at all!

It is a shame they leave so much behind and it takes about two or three weeks for a team of people to clear it all as well.
Even a cheap pop up tent costs money , they lugged it there so why not pack it up and take it home again?

@Clutterbugsmum

I think thy should add at least £100 per ticket for clear up the rubbish left behind at festival.

The amount of hypocrisy from these people about the 'damage' being done to the world, while at the same time leaving boat loads of rubbish at any event they attend.

The clear up cost IS included within the ticket price already. When putting on a festival this is one of many costs that are factored in when setting the prices. The 'litter bonds' some festival tickets include are just a small part of that.

@pleasekeeptotheright

"It's akin to people who leave their rubbish in the cinema."

You're told to leave your rubbish at the cinema so they can recycle it. You're told to take your rubbish away from festivals. Not "akin" at all.

In no cinema I've ever been to have we ever been told to leave our rubbish. How bizarre.

@the80sweregreat

It is a shame they leave so much behind and it takes about two or three weeks for a team of people to clear it all as well. Even a cheap pop up tent costs money , they lugged it there so why not pack it up and take it home again?

Because it's £20.

A weekend ticket to camp at Reading was £232.50 this year. Then add in your transport costs to get there, food, drinks, new outfits, other stuff you buy when you're there. It's a £500 weekend.

£20 for a tent is a drop in the ocean in the terms of the overall cost.