Tackling waste at modern-day festivals

Whenever a large number of people gather there is always likely to be mess left behind. Take the annual Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm for example, where over 500,000 bags of rubbish were collected by an army of 1,800 litter pickers in 2016. This reportedly cost the organisers £780,000. Whilst it is easy for a wildly popular festival like Glastonbury, where tickets sell out almost immediately, to afford to employ so many refuse collectors, it can be much harder for smaller events to manage a large scale clean-up. Here are a few strategies to tackle waste, that won’t break the bank.

Recycling exchanges
Everyone likes freebies and one way you can encourage festival goers to clean up after themselves is to give away products in exchange for a bag of rubbish. For example, Leeds & Reading Festival have been known to offer a free soft drink to each person handing in a full bag of recyclables. Another strategy is to have a small deposit in place on plastic bottles or cups which can be refunded.

Tent recycling
Festival landscapes are transformed into miniature cities overnight, with many festival goers choosing to stay in tents on the festival site, close to the music. However, with low price tents becoming more easily obtainable some people will treat their tent as disposable and leave it behind. One way to tackle this problem is to set up tent donation points near to campsites, where tents and other leftover camping supplies can be donated and perhaps given to charitable organisations to provide shelter for people in need.

Car Sharing
Another way to reduce the carbon footprint of a festival is to encourage visitors and staff to share their journey, which not only can help cut down emissions but can also save attendees money, should they decide to split their costs.

Green spaces
At some festivals, organisers set up dedicated green spaces where any littering is explicitly banned. The reason for this is that the green space then stands out amongst the rest of the festival site and sets an example of cleanliness for others to follow.

We take recycling seriously at LSPS. For more information or to find out how we can help with your waste disposal efforts, please visit our website or call us on freephone 0800 083 7807.