Love The Farm, Leave No Trace

[ybelgrave1]

I've said it before but the ecobond deposit is great for any festival. Whilst it is nice to think that giving people recycling and rubbish bags on their way in will encourage them to keep the site clean, unfortunately I don't think it's very realistic in most cases.

At Boomtown (and other festivals), you pay and extra £10 on top of your ticket and are given a bag when you come in. You can fill up the bag with rubbish and take it to the econbond station at any point where you will be refunded your tenner. There are also people who go around offering to buy your ecobond for a fiver so if you can't be bothered you still get some cash back (and the bag still gets filled) It works so well and it is such a nice change to leave a clean festival.

I'm not quite sure how recycling could be incorporated into the idea, but I'm sure someone could come up with something and it would definitely give people the incentive to leave no trace. To be honest I'm surprised they're not doing it already...

[whisty]

My 2p's worth:

Re-instate handing out of recycling and rubbish bags at gates upon entry,

A few more campsite caravans with rubbish bags available 24/7 would no go amiss.

Wonder if they stopped handing them out due to cost based factors or possibly because they contributed to even more rubbish with empty bags all over the place, including those used as mats when it;s wet. More visible distribution points would be a very good thing.

[deebeedoobee]

They should have 'clean up' police like they had the 'green' police. Some people might be embarrassed enough into clearing up if the police had loud megaphones announcing the fact that someone was about to leave their crap, bit like pissing in hedges etc

[Curlygirl]

Last year we had stewards coming round our campsite with green and black bags. Black ones to go to the bins and green to go to recycling points (ours was up the hill opposite the pyramid). As other have said, certain groups will always keep their site tidy and others just don't care, regardless of the free bags. It is such a shame to see the state of the farm not only on Monday but also around the main stages after headliners. It's dodgy trying to cross a muddy slippery field with all of the debris. It is really hard to police it though. Everyone knows to 'love the farm, leave no trace' but some are just too lazy. I don't know the answer.

[giantkatestacks]

I think the lack of bags is to with the fact that actually we carry 3 bags in the recycling teams now and theres no way that normal punters would get it right all the time so it would all need to be resorted anyway in the centre. That is just speculation though.

[donthaveacoolname]

Would something like a re-useable pint cup work - you pay a couple of quid extra for your first beer and you get a plastic / metal beer cup that can be re-used all weekend it could cut down on the number of paper cups arround the site?

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Would something like a re-useable pint cup work - you pay a couple of quid extra for your first beer and you get a plastic / metal beer cup that can be re-used all weekend it could cut down on the number of paper cups arround the site?

Works at Shambala, so can't see why it couldn't be rolled out at other festivals.

[The Placid Casual]

They should have 'clean up' police like they had the 'green' police. Some people might be embarrassed enough into clearing up if the police had loud megaphones announcing the fact that someone was about to leave their crap, bit like pissing in hedges etc

Sounds a great idea.

The people I can't stand the most are those who leave their tents behind, I mean seriously, what is the fucking matter with you?

[mrlibertinedream]

I've worked on recycling crew for the last few years litter picking from 6am to midday, ite not the best job but wouldn't go to Glasto now as just a punter, worst thing about it is abuse get idiots dropping crap and then asking you to pick it up, agree with others who say if you drop litter you should be chucked out

[jonodillieono]

I've said it before but the ecobond deposit is great for any festival. Whilst it is nice to think that giving people recycling and rubbish bags on their way in will encourage them to keep the site clean, unfortunately I don't think it's very realistic in most cases.

At Boomtown (and other festivals), you pay and extra £10 on top of your ticket and are given a bag when you come in. You can fill up the bag with rubbish and take it to the econbond station at any point where you will be refunded your tenner. There are also people who go around offering to buy your ecobond for a fiver so if you can't be bothered you still get some cash back (and the bag still gets filled) It works so well and it is such a nice change to leave a clean festival.

I'm not quite sure how recycling could be incorporated into the idea, but I'm sure someone could come up with something and it would definitely give people the incentive to leave no trace. To be honest I'm surprised they're not doing it already...

Sounds amazing that boomtown plan

[st dan]

How about something like this? ...

On the exits have staff exchanging full rubbish bags for raffle tickets.

They have the raffle draw before ticket release day and say they draw 25 winning numbers, and each winning number gets 4 free tickets.

So that's only 100 tickets being given away .. But could potentially mean many people handing in their bags of rubbish for the chance of winning.

[Spindles]

One year they were giving out free loo roll packs as you went in. This never happened again and as a result I have not wiped my arse at glastonbury since. My arse is a great matted lump of clagnuts come Monday, because without someone handing me toilet roll as I come in the gate I completely give up any responsibility for the state of said arse.

[whisty]

One year they were giving out free loo roll packs as you went in. This never happened again and as a result I have not wiped my arse at glastonbury since. My arse is a great matted lump of clagnuts come Monday, because without someone handing me toilet roll as I come in the gate I completely give up any responsibility for the state of said arse.

And I thought that smell was the long drops, how wrong can one be.

[frostypaw]

I'm all for a bit more hardline and I think Tom had it right that we're reaching saturation point for people who will actually be bothered.

The problem is the folk who don't give a shit and just leave everything and they WILL NOT listen to these messages - it's exactly the same bunch who are larking in front of the pyramid asking why there are depressing charity crap videos on.

I think the festival needs to take more care over it's demographic if it wants things to change and control it's image. If you project yourself as a place for young wild people to come and go crazy and do whatever they want then that is what you will get..... either suck it up or change.

Unfortunately they're too gentle and nice for that, and they like the free publicity. They could still do themselves a lot of favours excluding certain sections of the press if they continue their slanted reporting, it's just image management and when you're their size you can't avoid it

I feel fairly sure about this now. I've lost count of how often I've now seen people acting like utter selfish dicks, only to say to anyone complaining "Hey it's Glastonbury, I can do what I want"

Edited March 4, 2015 by frostypaw

[mccdyl001]

How about stewards watching the packing up on the monday. They could keep an eye out for people cleaning up more than just their own campsite - i.e. the conscientious group who saw their messy neighbours up sticks and leave a bunch of wrecked tents and litter. The conscientious group clean up the other mess too and the stewards capture their registration details which gives them early access the following year come ticket day?

That way, you couldn't "sell" your early access for the next year, but at the same time you're given a really valuable reward for taking the time to clean up the site..

Edit: I'm thinking something along the lines of how the people who cycle to Glastonbury get early access the next year a day or two before the general tickets go on sale.

Edited March 4, 2015 by mccdyl001

[Pinhead]

How about something like this? ...

On the exits have staff exchanging full rubbish bags for raffle tickets.

They have the raffle draw before ticket release day and say they draw 25 winning numbers, and each winning number gets 4 free tickets.

So that's only 100 tickets being given away .. But could potentially mean many people handing in their bags of rubbish for the chance of winning.

I really like this idea. I mean, I'd actually go out and find more litter to put in bags in order to be able to have a chance of a free ticket next year...

[LondonTom]

Works at Shambala, so can't see why it couldn't be rolled out at other festivals.

Think Glasto worker has ruled this out, partly because the bars are run by different pepple etc and cleaning standards would mean the festival would have to have like bazillion of these cups on site to be "reused".