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

It’s not every festival. Beautiful Days camping fields were pristine and completely empty afterwards. It’s a different demographic.

This. DH and I were at a relatively small folk festival the weekend before Reading and were pondering how a demographic aged 35+ is capable of taking individual responsibility and managed to leave the camping fields with barely even a stray crisp wrapper. While the following weekend DD returns from Reading with not only all of her own camping stuff, but also a virtually new 4-man tent in good condition that had been abandoned on Sunday night (she did check that the people had left before removing it) and, in her words, "was only going to go to waste"...

@LindaEllen , one of our local cinemas - can't remember which but we have a Vue and Odeon - definitely asks for rubbish to be left, I've never been sure why?! I wondered if it's so they can ensure recycling is done properly?

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

You don’t think the price of clean up is factored in to the cost of the ticket? At 230 quid for a weekend ticket, of course the cost is factored in.

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.

Show me evidence that any single individual has been proven to care about the environment and has also left stuff behind?

[quote howtodealwithit]@LindaEllen , one of our local cinemas - can't remember which but we have a Vue and Odeon - definitely asks for rubbish to be left, I've never been sure why?! I wondered if it's so they can ensure recycling is done properly? [/quote]
I mean, fair enough if that's the case nowadays .. but my main point was that people leaving rubbish because they know it'll get tidied up by the cleaners. Maybe the cinema was a bad example then! 😅

This is a good ideally a previous poster:

There should be an environmental charge for each tent to allow for clearance

I wondered if it's so they can ensure recycling is done properly?
That’s what they say.

@CounsellorTroi

Our cinema has put signs up asking for rubbish to be left at seats. Not sure why as I thought this would make cleaning harder!

My bag got ruined once when a food tray containing barbecue sauce got left under my seat and I put my bag in it not knowing it was there. It wasn’t an expensive bag but even so….

Ooh I would have been fuming @CounsellorTroi no matter the bag!

I obvs brought my rubbish with me as it had recycling stuff in there and I don't like just leaving it around.

@lindaellen @howtodealwithit ours is a vue.

I wonder if they need to sanitize each booked seat so will need to check for rubbish anyway. Weirdly there weren't the usual bins on the way out.

@VladmirsPoutine As with any anti social behaviour it's the minority that get noticed BUT although many young people espouse the idea of 'changing the world' and 'protecting the planet' they often can't see the bigger picture. Needless planned obsolescence means that we will be mining for increasingly rare metals for electronic devices for ever (or at least until more sustainable alternatives are found). So there will still be mining - just not for coal.
Electric cars? Oh yes....the electricity infrastructure is so so inadequate for all the powering up that will be needed. An ex employee of an electric company told me this : when a new housing estate is being built service contractors need to know if it will be a gas/electric or just electric for energy needs as if only electric the cable capacity will need to be much greater. So, if you live in an area which is gas/electricity and everybody starts having charging points put in (or using 13amp plugs) the cables etc will be overloaded and sub stations will begin to fail.
Clothing - I have a relative who is addicted to designer items - not the proper ones of course but the knock offs, produced with substandard fabrics made up into garments in some sweat shop somewhere and shipped halfway across the world and still costing peanuts - and he thinks it's 'designer' Ha!! Mending? Who does that any more? I've just 'sides to middle' with a torn sheet. Plenty of wear left in it now and no need to buy a new one.
Sell by dates !! The biggest hoax foisted on the public in the history of commercial food production. Again, what happened to common sense. Check your fridge before you go shopping, make a list, stick to it and use up left overs to make soups, casserole bases etc.

Sorry this has turned into a bit of a rant but I can't be doing with the hand wringing brigade (of all ages). Yes, the world is in a mess, and yes, by and large it's down to us and our use of resources. However, banning the use of inconsequential things like plastic straws and cotton buds is not going to significantly change things when you look at the tonnes and tonnes of plastic waste that is bagged up on beaches. As for climate change and global warming......it happens on a cyclical basis over several thousand/millions of years. If you look back over history there have been several warming and cooling periods on Earth, well before significant human activity and 'perceived' CO2 levels and their effects. I doubt reducing the amount of CO2 produced by human activity will make a rats ass worth of difference . Try telling leaves not to decompose, or cows not to fart or volcanos not to erupt and see how far that gets you. Oh, and by the way the oceans give off CO2 so see how basically we're f.......d. The tipping point was reached many years ago and nobody would listen!

@pinkstripeycat

This is a good ideally a previous poster:

There should be an environmental charge for each tent to allow for clearance

That wouldn't work though.

Because the attitude for many would be "well I've paid for the cleaning up, so I can do as I please with my rubbish".

Just watched some footage of the site after everyone has left , some of the tents left behind are really good , saw at least three big Outwell ones. Also wondering how much you would get if you weighed in all the cans left behind ?

The cost of rubbish removal and clearup is included in the ticket price, so I don't see why rubbish (i.e true waste) needs to be taken away from site. Having said that, DD2 reported that the bins were hopelessly inadequate and overflowing from day one, so stuff was just strewn around, and the whole place was pretty disgusting by the Sunday. But I made sure she brought her tent home - I'm not buying another one!

BUT the comment about perfectly good items like tents being used once and discarded is very valid. It's exactly like fast fashion - if something is so cheap, who cares if it's used once and discarded....and yes, it's sad that many of the "woke" generation seem to be blind to this. It's the same reason my DD won't carry a bag for life, but just spends 5p at every shop she goes to ("it's only 5p").

I used to live over looking one of the Reading Festival Car parks.

The mess that covered Kings Meadow every year was appalling - not even the actual campsite but people in their own cars chucking their rubbish out of their windows (whilst holding their hands in their horn constantly for 2 hours 😡).

They just didn't give a shit about the environment or the people who lived there.

Even the supermarkets used to be covered in litter where they'd opened stuff in the middle of the store then just dumped the packaging.

[quote Ponoka7]@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.[/quote]
Oh for goodness sake. Have we really reached the stage where littering is seen as a social good because it keeps litter pickers in employment?

DS went to Leeds Festival. When you buy bottled water they give it to you with the cap removed so you can’t refill it and have to buy more bottled water. It’s disgraceful.

People care until they have to put in a bit of effort themselves and then suddenly it's not so important.

@GrasssInPocket

It’s not every festival. Beautiful Days camping fields were pristine and completely empty afterwards. It’s a different demographic.

This. DH and I were at a relatively small folk festival the weekend before Reading and were pondering how a demographic aged 35+ is capable of taking individual responsibility and managed to leave the camping fields with barely even a stray crisp wrapper. While the following weekend DD returns from Reading with not only all of her own camping stuff, but also a virtually new 4-man tent in good condition that had been abandoned on Sunday night (she did check that the people had left before removing it) and, in her words, "was only going to go to waste"...

She'll go far!

I might need to volunteer for cleanup at a festival then, I'm going camping for a fortnight soon and my tent is too small for that much kit.

and then they all worry about climate change & our little planet,as if

I think the problem stems from each children's background how they are raised.
Same happens at smaller scales after school events. Those of us who cares stay behind and clean up the mess along with our children. We always see same people doing it.
Majorities leave their mess behind. Each individual may act different in different circumstances, but a lot of people has mind set that it's not a big deal for them to leave a mess because someone else are going to clean up anyway, and they pass that value to their children.

BroccoliFloret Tue 31-Aug-21 12:49:53
pinkstripeycat
This is a good ideally a previous poster:

There should be an environmental charge for each tent to allow for clearance
That wouldn't work though.

Because the attitude for many would be "well I've paid for the cleaning up, so I can do as I please with my rubbish".

This is like carbon offsetting.....its is rearranging the deckchairs. The "use once and recycle/bin mentality needs changing

I think the problem stems from each children's background how they are raised it really isn't that. Ds was the kid who stayed behind with me to clear up at school events. I don't know what the answer is but please don't blame the parents. These are young adults who are responsible for their own actions.

Show me evidence that any single individual has been proven to care about the environment and has also left stuff behind?

This is a bit of an odd one, since how do you prove someone cares about the environment? Some seem to feel a bit of ranting, keyboard hammering and demo attending does it, but that can just as easily mean that they enjoy those things regardless of the "cause"

It's perfectly true that not every youngster's a hypocritical sloth, but then looking at the sheer scale of the filth left behind at these events, it's not caused by a tiny minority either

I think the problem stems from each children's background how they are raised

Nail on head and all that. Of course they won't always do as they were taught, but looking at comments like "The cleanup's included in the price" and "They were tiiirrred" are you really surprised at the results?

Doesn't it get expensive buying a new tent every year? Even if only 20 quid, that's 20 quid you didn't need to spend if you just took it home. I have a cheap tent and I will be using it again (have used it for one festival so fine so far). Seems a waste of money to leave them as well as being unnecessary landfill.

@godmum56

BroccoliFloret Tue 31-Aug-21 12:49:53 pinkstripeycat This is a good ideally a previous poster:

There should be an environmental charge for each tent to allow for clearance
That wouldn't work though.

Because the attitude for many would be "well I've paid for the cleaning up, so I can do as I please with my rubbish".

This is like carbon offsetting.....its is rearranging the deckchairs. The "use once and recycle/bin mentality needs changing

Indeed. It doesn't deal with the fundamental problem that the tents still go to landfill. We need a fundamental change of mindset that the amount of energy and materials used to produce those tents for them to be used only once is completely unacceptable.

It'll never happen though.

As I said we drove into the field to collect Dd and her friends. Inexplicably the bins that had been there all weekend had been removed in Sunday morning. There were no bins left on the entire field. We had to walk round into the Artists and Guests campsite next door to dispose of the two bin bags of rubbish they had - interestingly on that site they had a larger bin area. Neither had the option to separate recycling.

As a Pp said, they festivals having skips on each campsite would make a lot more sense.

Dd and her friends were very happy to remove their rubbish- and their pitch was left entirely clear. The only trace left behind them was the flattened grass from beneath their tent. However, removing the bins from the campsite made this much more difficult!

My teen went to Leeds a few years ago and they left the tent behind. It was a 4 man tent they all clubbed together for and were planning on bringing it back. By the end it was covered in sick and piss (people throwing bottles of piss round the site) and on the last night they were watching a band and came back and the tent had been vandalised with shit smeared all on the outside of it, they dismantled it and left it by the bins, to be fair i dont blame anyone for not trying to put a piss and vomited on tent back into a bag.

He also had his camping chair stolen at around the same time.