Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

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horizon
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Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by horizon »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-48184756

They reckon there are 250,000 tents left at festivals every year in the UK. These are basically single-use items so Glastonbury's claim to ban single-use plastic rings very hollow indeed. Personally I would close Glastonbury until they have fixed this problem, whether by the use of deposits or tent hire.

However, Glastonbury isn't the only place it happens, as many campsite owners can testify. A tent tax is what's needed with proceeds going to children's outdoor charities.

I know that some tents are now provided by a tent rescue organistion and I would suggest this is made
universal at the festival i.e. you must use one of these tents (and pay for the privilege).

https://www.camplight.co.uk/about-us/

Glastonbury's plastics and tents problem sickens me as do the people who attend and create it. Sorry, but they really do disgust me.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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al_yrpal
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by al_yrpal »

Horizon, its just another example of lip service as everyone is well aware. Collectively everything is getting worse and worse. Future generations will probably suffer immensely. I shall be ashes... :roll:

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
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Redvee
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by Redvee »

Can't speak for other stores onsite but the onsite supermarket is not selling any drinks in plastic bottles, only cans. Hopefully the other stores will be following suit as I can't see them being allowed to trade if they are selling drinks in plastic bottles.
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by PH »

What about the drugs? Are they in greasproof paper rather than a plastic wrap?
We dump on average about half a ton of rubbish a year each in the UK, whatever happens at Glastonbury isn't going to change that, if they can make a few people think about it that's a good thing isn't it?
Tangled Metal
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by Tangled Metal »

al_yrpal wrote:Horizon, its just another example of lip service as everyone is well aware. Collectively everything is getting worse and worse. Future generations will probably suffer immensely. I shall be ashes... :roll:

Al

Adding to the carbon emissions in the process! Part of the problem! :wink:
Stradageek
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by Stradageek »

Try the Greenbelt Festival in Northamptonshire. They published a photo of the campsite the day after the festival finished - a pristine field ready for the cows to return despite housing 12,000+ people the day before. It can be done!
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by mattheus »

cardboard tents miht be the answer - about £50

http://tickets.kartent.com/
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horizon
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by horizon »

mattheus wrote:cardboard tents miht be the answer - about £50

http://tickets.kartent.com/


Thank you for that, though there are quite a few possible solutions, starting of course with cotton tents (all others to be banned). Glastonbury actually suffers from over-demand and that would be one way of rationing tickets. What's required is a change of mindset.

I met Michael Eavis back in 1981 when the pyramid stage was just built. He showed a small group of us around (and under!) the stage at the end of the festival. The Big Green Gathering was held around the same time in (IIRR) the same place (Worthy Farm) or at least nearby. Those were heady days full of optimism and the fact that those dreams have been so literally and comprehensively trashed I find very disheartening.

I put this thread in Campaigning rather than the Tea Shop because tents are something that are dear to the hearts of many forum members and of course central to cycle camping, especially lightweight plastic tents. How can one discuss them rationally and calmly while thousands are discarded in fields. This is a moral not a technological failing.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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horizon
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by horizon »

And here it is, plastic cup in hand, new tent ready to go. This is a 2019 picture from the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/galle ... ures#img-2

Glastonbury.jpg


I just wonder of we'll get an end-of-festival photo of the same man. Glastonbury festival goers - hang your heads in shame.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by mattheus »

Stradageek wrote:Try the Greenbelt Festival in Northamptonshire. They published a photo of the campsite the day after the festival finished - a pristine field ready for the cows to return despite housing 12,000+ people the day before. It can be done!


:!:

:D
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by Bmblbzzz »

The OP mentions "tent rescue". I don't know what the organisers of Glastonbury do with discarded tents, but clearly the rescued tents have to be rescued from somewhere.
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by PH »

Stradageek wrote: a pristine field ready for the cows to return despite housing 12,000+ people the day before. It can be done!

You are aware of the huge environmental damage cows cause aren't you?
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horizon
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by horizon »

Bmblbzzz wrote:The OP mentions "tent rescue". I don't know what the organisers of Glastonbury do with discarded tents, but clearly the rescued tents have to be rescued from somewhere.


Camplight don't appear to say where they get their recycled tents from. But they certainly cannot take the thousands from Glastonbury. The main problem seems to be that the tents really are seen as single-use items and have little or no value once used. Quite how these festival-goers resolve that with their moral values I really don't know. Do they really care that little?
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by PH »

horizon wrote:What's required is a change of mindset.

The whole of society needs a change of mindset. How much of the nations waste this week do you think will come from Glastonbury? I doubt it's as much as the plastic that wraps all supermarket veg, that's no more necessary than disposable tents and gets produced week after week. I don't disagree that the waste at festivals is pointless and lazy, but it's bin day down my street and I guarantee most of the bins out are crammed full of equally lazy and pointless rubbish.
Yes, the photos of fields covered in rubbish is shocking, it's very visible, an easy target and easily avoided, but you're attacking what is a tiny part of the problem and at the same time criticising the action the that is being taken on the basis that it's only a tiny part of the problem...
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Re: Glastonbury - no single-use plastics? You must be joking!

Post by mattheus »

horizon wrote:The main problem seems to be that the tents really are seen as single-use items and have little or no value once used. Quite how these festival-goers resolve that with their moral values I really don't know. Do they really care that little?


We don't know what they are thinking. There was a study on this earlier in the year - quite a few festival customers did assume that their abandoned tent would be re-used/repurposed/recycled, leading to no moral conflict at all!

Perhaps the rest are all in the 500,000 most virtuous, lowest carbon footprint segment of society. So in their minds they can justify throwing away one (shared) tent per year. I doubt that everyone who moans about "tentgate" is entirely guilt-free.

And then there are probably a few thousand who DO take their tent away (it might be a cherished artefact from their first ever Glasto).

We don't know.

You can take too extreme a view on these matter sometimes ...
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