Glasto Green Survey

[the wonderwhy]

Because the people who camp in Park Home are an absolute disgrace and their views shouldn't even be considered, the filthy toerags.

 

Seriously, people should stay well away from that field next year. Vile place.

 

I camped there and it was ace. Not a trek to anything, great people around us and was kept relatively tidy all weekend + on the Monday. 

[Untz]

I camped there and it was ace. Not a trek to anything, great people around us and was kept relatively tidy all weekend + on the Monday. 

 

I camped there too. I would like to camp there again next year, but I won't be able to if you keep spreading those kind of lies about!

[Keithy]

Curious survey. Wonder where they're going with the renting kit thing?

Still think they're looking at it the wrong way in part, it's substantially down to who you attract and how they're used to treating the world around them. You can almost always tell which will be the worst campsites at the end from day 1

 

Agree entirely. On my response I said there were 3 types of glastonbury people.

 

1 - Those who see their tents, etc, etc as disposable items and have no intention of reusing them.

 

2 - Those who would like to take them home but are just so tired that they can't face the hassle of taking it all down, packing it, carrying it back, etc so they just end up reluctantly leaving it, and telling themselves that it will be recycled.

 

3 - Those who take it all back home.

 

Don't think you'll ever be able to stop the first lot as it's a social attitude. The second lot could be helped if you had stewards helping people take down their tents, etc..... which seems a bit lazy, etc but at least might mean some people take it home.

[the wonderwhy]

I camped there too. I would like to camp there again next year, but I won't be able to if you keep spreading those kind of lies about!

 

I'm an idiot. 

[frostypaw]

Park Home didn't get as packed as I expected - the wider paths were interesting and seemed to mean no trampled edges of tents this year. Was our home for five years, might return....

I think Keithy has it kinda bang on but I think a lot of it is the final pack - facing broken trolleys and bugger all way to secure it all folk just give up.

I wonder now about trolley hire - ones that the festival is (relatively) sure will survive. Maybe even just from campsite to car on the way out? That and campsite crew issued with pallet wrap and you could help a lot of well-intentioned people

[DeanoL]

I have suggested issuing a tent ticket with your entrance ticket, which must be displayed. They then get the details off the abandoned tents and ban them. Working on the theory if they can't be arsed to take tent down then they won't remove ticket.

Not foolproof granted.

 

Not just not foolproof, nothing to stop me nicking your tent ticket off your tent, putting it on my tent Monday morning, abandoning it, and getting you banned from the festival.

 

Just to make it clear - we've never left anything behind.  In fact this year a couple of people in our group took an abandoned tent home with them as their's broke during the festival.  And it wasn't one of the cheap 2 man tents - it was a 5 man whopper and looked like it was the first time it had been used!  They looked it up online when they got back and it cost £250 new.  I just about managed to pack away my own 2 man tent on Monday this year but if you had the energy you could take a couple of these abandoned tents home, stick them on ebay and cover the cost of the festival!

 

I think that's kind of key isn't it? Lot's of people on here talk about how packing the tent away and taking it home is no bother and there's no reason not to do it. But if that was true, these people would be making a fortune in collecting abandoned tents, taking them home, and selling them on. Fact is, it is a fair amount of effort - that doesn't make leaving it behind okay, but if you haven't got the energy to pack someone elses' tent away and make £200, you can understand the mindset that can't even be arsed to pack their own away.

 

Agree entirely. On my response I said there were 3 types of glastonbury people.

 

1 - Those who see their tents, etc, etc as disposable items and have no intention of reusing them.

 

2 - Those who would like to take them home but are just so tired that they can't face the hassle of taking it all down, packing it, carrying it back, etc so they just end up reluctantly leaving it, and telling themselves that it will be recycled.

 

3 - Those who take it all back home.

 

I think there is another, that's people who are in category 1 or 2, but will still pack the tent up and drop it off at the skip on the way out. That cuts down hugely on the costs of cleanup (you're just paying landfill, not for people to spend time and effort packing stuff away). And while they're different ethically, in terms of the festival, the money they pay to have that disposed of is from the same area all the rest of the waste: the big guy who gets through a slab of 24 cans and throws them all the bins... the cost of disposing of those (plus the additional human waste generated by that level of consumption) probably equates to near the same cost of someone just drinking spirits from three plastic bottles.

 

In terms of the festival's waste bill, abandoned camping equipment is a tiny proportion of waste, massively over-shadowed by paper cups, cans, and human waste. You want to actually save the festival money, take home your cans, paper cups and exclusively use the composting toilets.

 

Abandoned camping equipment is always the waste whipping boy because it's so obvious and visible.

[fatyeti24]

Not just not foolproof, nothing to stop me nicking your tent ticket off your tent, putting it on my tent Monday morning, abandoning it, and getting you banned from the festival.

 

 

I think that's kind of key isn't it? Lot's of people on here talk about how packing the tent away and taking it home is no bother and there's no reason not to do it. But if that was true, these people would be making a fortune in collecting abandoned tents, taking them home, and selling them on. Fact is, it is a fair amount of effort - that doesn't make leaving it behind okay, but if you haven't got the energy to pack someone elses' tent away and make £200, you can understand the mindset that can't even be arsed to pack their own away.

 

 

I think there is another, that's people who are in category 1 or 2, but will still pack the tent up and drop it off at the skip on the way out. That cuts down hugely on the costs of cleanup (you're just paying landfill, not for people to spend time and effort packing stuff away). And while they're different ethically, in terms of the festival, the money they pay to have that disposed of is from the same area all the rest of the waste: the big guy who gets through a slab of 24 cans and throws them all the bins... the cost of disposing of those (plus the additional human waste generated by that level of consumption) probably equates to near the same cost of someone just drinking spirits from three plastic bottles.

 

In terms of the festival's waste bill, abandoned camping equipment is a tiny proportion of waste, massively over-shadowed by paper cups, cans, and human waste. You want to actually save the festival money, take home your cans, paper cups and exclusively use the composting toilets.

 

Abandoned camping equipment is always the waste whipping boy because it's so obvious and visible.

do you have  - or know where i could find - the data to support this?  i'd be interested to see the figures.

[frostypaw]

Lot's of people on here talk about how packing the tent away and taking it home is no bother and there's no reason not to do it. But if that was true, these people would be making a fortune in collecting abandoned tents, taking them home, and selling them on. Fact is, it is a fair amount of effort - that doesn't make leaving it behind okay, but if you haven't got the energy to pack someone elses' tent away and make £200, you can understand the mindset that can't even be arsed to pack their own away.

Actually it's mostly about space - I've had friends who have come back in after their first run and collected tents. I've done it, but it's always ended up meaning a second run back into the festival as you've already got to take your own kit and tent out, and then you've got to have room in the car - we take wine/spirits to save space already so there's no room for a slew of tents too, and sod all room to clean and dry a whole bunch quickly when we get home.

Considering most of these people are also leaving a huge pile of booze and other shit so have so much less to carry back to the car there's really little excuse, they don't think they need one it's just part of the holiday expenses as Glasto is so cheap otherwise

[fred quimby]

 

 

In terms of the festival's waste bill, abandoned camping equipment is a tiny proportion of waste, massively over-shadowed by paper cups, cans, and human waste. You want to actually save the festival money, take home your cans, paper cups and exclusively use the composting toilets.

 

Abandoned camping equipment is always the waste whipping boy because it's so obvious and visible.

 

Or Long drops as that is treated and then used back on the land.

 

I'd like to see those figures too.

 

and as for Paper cups are you saying they are not recycled and go into landfill which cost the festival, as was mentioned earlier in this thread, or are you talking separate cost of that waste management?

[michael eavis' beard]

Actually it's mostly about space - I've had friends who have come back in after their first run and collected tents. I've done it, but it's always ended up meaning a second run back into the festival as you've already got to take your own kit and tent out, and then you've got to have room in the car - we take wine/spirits to save space already so there's no room for a slew of tents too, and sod all room to clean and dry a whole bunch quickly when we get home.

Considering most of these people are also leaving a huge pile of booze and other shit so have so much less to carry back to the car there's really little excuse, they don't think they need one it's just part of the holiday expenses as Glasto is so cheap otherwise

 

Correct.  If there was room in the car we would've taken more home.  As it was we only managed a couple of camping chairs.

[DeanoL]

do you have  - or know where i could find - the data to support this?  i'd be interested to see the figures.

Sure - last years figures, and from the Mirror, so my apologies - there's likely a better source but:

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/glastonbury-2014---army-cleaners-3788040

 

An estimated 11 tonnes of clothes and camping gear will be abandoned, including 6,500 sleeping bags, 5,500 tents, 3,500 airbeds, 2,200 chairs, 950 rolled mats and 400 gazebos.

It is thought that the festival organisers will spend around £780,000 collecting the rubbish from across the site.

It is expected that volunteers will sift through around nine tonnes of glass, 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles, 41 tonnes of cardboard, and 66 tonnes of scrap metal.

Nearly 200 tonnes of composted organic waste is also removed from the site throughout the five day festival, which was this year attended by 175,000 people.

 

 

and as for Paper cups are you saying they are not recycled and go into landfill which cost the festival, as was mentioned earlier in this thread, or are you talking separate cost of that waste management?

They are recycled, but that costs money too. Potentially more money as it needs sorting.

 

Fact is, Glastonbury needs to recycle a certain percentage of waste as part of the license. So it's good that stuff gets recycled. Also the environment and all that. But purely from the perspective of how much money things cost the festival - you pay landfill tax on landfill, not recycling. That's where the premium is. Landfill tax last year was £80/tonne. There were 11 tonnes of leftover kit, which means... £880 landfill tax for stuff that was abandoned.

 

I mean, it's not free, but it's four tickets. Landfill tax is not a huge driver in any of this.

[fatyeti24]

cheers, DeanoL

[slash's hat]

Not just not foolproof, nothing to stop me nicking your tent ticket off your tent, putting it on my tent Monday morning, abandoning it, and getting you banned from the festival..

Fair point, thieving git : )

[Untz]

Maybe people could go around offering a service to take down tents. Currently I get the other half to do it all for free, but I would quite happily pay for someone to sort it out for me. £20 for the tent to be put down and my self-inflating mat to be packed away, maybe even more if I was feeling really really ill.

 

But then again, if someone doesn't want the tent or it's wrecked then they're not going to pay.

[frostypaw]

Hah t'flatmate made the mistake of putting down his pop-up like a pro in seconds - took about 15 seconds for someone to come ask him for help

I think campsite crew are meant to do this but the scale of the operation monday morning with everyone rushing off is insurmountable. They could all do with pop-up training for sure, very valuable skill

[fred quimby]

cheers, DeanoL

[ghandi]

I'm an over 50 veteran and I've never left anything behind.  The biggest problem is if you encourage people to come by public transport they are less inclined to take home a dirty, wet or broken tent.  With a car, or a caravan, it's much easier to take stuff home for cleaning and repairing.

 

This is so true! I'd never thought of it like that. Of course cheaper tents , easy throw away , and the above.

[ghandi]

Also don't fancy the hiring stuff either, I have a 3 man tent to myself, a 2 man is a bit small, I like my space

[parsonjack]

I have suggested issuing a tent ticket with your entrance ticket, which must be displayed. They then get the details off the abandoned tents and ban them. Working on the theory if they can't be arsed to take tent down then they won't remove ticket.

Not foolproof granted.

Can't see the festival ever becoming so draconian as to ban folks for leaving stuff....where would you draw the line...a tent, a muddy sleeping bag, one wellie, a couple of Twix wrappers?

Education is the way....but with incentive. Clear your space and you get pre-order on next year's tickets...or a discount...or some 'Festival Vouchers'. There has to be a good way to reduce it, if not eradicate it that would be easy to implement.

Edited July 27, 2015 by parsonjack

[fatyeti24]

Can't see the festival ever becoming so draconian as to ban folks for leaving stuff....where would you draw the line...a tent, a muddy sleeping bag, one wellie, a couple of Twix wrappers?

Education is the way....but with incentive. Clear your space and you get pre-order on next year's tickets...or a discount...or some 'Festival Vouchers'. There has to be a good way to reduce it, if not eradicate it that would be easy to implement.

a couple of twix wrappers, definitely.  you know what those sneaky bastards are capable of..

[frostypaw]

a couple of twix wrappers, definitely.  you know what those sneaky bastards are capable of..

I'm confused though, is that one bit of litter or two?

[fatyeti24]

I'm confused though, is that one bit of litter or two?

two.  i'm no sadist.

[DeanoL]

The hiring thing is... interesting.

 

It doesn't really solve the problem (they'll still have to take down and dispose of the hired tents, they can just charge for them).

 

I genuinely wonder if the "stuff left behind" is just a smokescreen for the actual agenda - the site can't viably expand any further, and yet every year, the camping fields get busier. Fields that had space on Thursday night one year are full up by Wednesday the next. While the number of tickets being sold isn't going up, and staff tickets are only going up marginally.

 

People are bringing bigger tents.

 

And there's a point at which that's not sustainable either, because you just can't fit them all in.

 

The whole hire thing (notice it was primarily asking about 2-man tents) may be an attempt to curb that, rather than rubbish left behind?

[frostypaw]

I've been saying it's down to bigger tents for years.

Just look at old campsite pics, tent technology has changed a LOT they're vastly lighter than they were so people can get and bring in larger tents 'for a bit of luxury' - christ i do it myself.

I think they shot themselves in the foot a bit with the no gazebos thing... just increases the appeal of a huge tent with a covered area instead.

[Quark]

a couple of twix wrappers, definitely.  you know what those sneaky bastards are capable of..

I'm fairly sure that two twix wrappers is a tell-tale sign that someone's found a way over the fence