Greener Glastonbury

10 Oct 2003

Although Glastonbury generates no more rubbish than an equivalent urban population over the same number of days, any event with 150,000 attending for 3 days will create mountains of litter. Managing that litter is an ongoing challenge for every event promoter.

One of the practical ways Glastonbury Festival deals with litter, which also reflects its well-known green credentials, is by giving high profile to recycling activity. The Recycling Centre at Glastonbury, at the centre of the site next to the Pyramid Stage, was kept busy this year. Managed by Network Recycling and staffed by volunteers, the centre saw a significant rise in material sent for recycling - from 38 tonnes in 2002, to 61.7 tonnes in 2003.

The large increase in the number of litter drums around the site (7,000 in total!), together with the distribution of thousands of additional waste and recycling bin bags to the festival goers as they arrived at the gates, made a great difference. The additional bags speeded up the process of cleaning the fields and encouraged festival goers to separate out their own recyclables in the camping fields. As a result, 23.83 tonnes of cans and plastics were recovered, which is an increase of over 33% on 2002.

For some years now the Festival has been pushing the message “don’t bring glass to the festival for safety reasons”, but Network Recycling still recovered nearly 11 tonnes of glass - with most of it coming from security containers that stored items confiscated at the gates. Other materials recycled were cardboard (17 tonnes) and scrap metal (10 tonnes).

Planning for the 2004 festival is well under way with a revised waste management plan already drafted as part of the licence application. The Festival is working towards the really tough targets of 16% of all litter recycled by 2004 and 24% at future events. Possible new green initiatives being considered include a push to reduce organic waste sent to landfill by introducing a composting scheme. As food traders use biodegradable card plates and drink containers it is a feasible option. Composting, even more recycling bins, and more effort in promoting recycling on site will continue to emphasise the Festival’s green side.

The Festival Waste Manager Robert Kearle and Andy Grant of Network Recycling gave a big vote of thanks to the dedicated band of volunteers on the 2003 recycling crew for making a tremendous contribution to the environment and to helping sustain the future of the Festival. They look forward to working with equally committed volunteers to help push the recycling totals up yet again at the next event.

With the emphasis above on litter, it would be too easy to come away with the notion that the Festival has an overall negative impact on the environment. Far from it! A recent biodiversity study carried out on the Festival site highlighted the rich and diverse environment that has evolved through alternative land usage. Holding a festival once a year in the middle of the growing season prevents the use of environmentally damaging conventional farming practices and really makes a difference. As a result the Festival site now hosts a wonderful range of flora and fauna.

Glastonbury is getting greener...


You can see more about how the bins are made here.

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