YOU MADE A PLEDGE !

[Cian T]

I was really impressed on the Thursday morning over in Pylon. Woke up to find bin bags and recycling bags attached to a number of tents. That seemed to help clear up a lot more rubbish for most, but there's still a load being left behind though sadly.

[Glastobuddy]

6 minutes ago, Jugtanion said:

Yeah, it's like saying fuck you festival, and fuck you oxfam volunteers. See you next year for more of the same shit.

 The trouble is it's the "daytrippers" who have no ties or cares about the farm/festival. Us mere mortals (posing as "worthy warriors") were just (for want of a better expression) mugged off when trying to keep some sort of order and help lighten the load for the clean up crews. It put me off attempting something similar again. 

[Jamie D]

2 hours ago, Spindles said:

I took more tents home than I brought, disposed of more rubbish than I created (by a huge margin, I generated a quarter bin bag of landfill, but cleared up around where I was and got 4 big bags of landfill and 4 of recycled), I encouraged people to pack up and take home abandoned tents and equipment to use for future festivals also, so that probably got a handful of tents re-used.  I figure the best I can do is offset some of the selfishness myself, if you care enough about the issue step up and do more, put more in than you take out of everything in life and you leave the world just a tiny, tiny bit better than you found it.

 

This is excellent work.

Next year us efestivalers should make a separate pledge to each clear up a certain amount of litter or take down and donate other peoples tents. We could make a decent dent in the clear up operation and help secure the future of the festival. Even if other twats don't give a fuck.

[Jugtanion]

11 minutes ago, Jamie D said:

This is excellent work.

Next year us efestivalers should make a separate pledge to each clear up a certain amount of litter or take down and donate other peoples tents. We could make a decent dent in the clear up operation and help secure the future of the festival. Even if other twats don't give a fuck.

I like this and would definitely be in. I already clear up bits of other people's stuff as I go but doing more on a more concerted basis would be a good thing.

[ghostdancer1]

stayed in Worthy View this year and the place was absolutely spotless all weekend and when we were leaving on Monday around 11am. seems like pretty much everyone had taken their stuff back with them. obviously it's a bit easier when you don't have a tent to take down, but still didn't see any chairs or other discarded stuff strewn around, and everyone had brought their bagged up rubbish to the bins along the walkways.

much cleaner than general camping last year which unfortunately resembled any other festival i've been to with the amount of stuff that people have left behind or just tossed on the ground.

 

[djdavejohnson]

I looked on the webcam later on Monday evening and couldn't believe the amount of tents that had been left. It got me thinking - it's obviously a difficult thing to tackle, and my guess is of course there are some that simply to not give a fuck, for others it's probably a case of cannot be bothered after a tiring 5 days. Not an excuse of course, just trying to get into the mindset of those that do. Could an option be for those that insist on leaving their tent, that they make a donation at the camping field / on their way out to the festival to at least cover some of the costs of recovering the tents etc. I know it doesn't do anything for the environmental damage, i.e. pegs left in the ground etc. but at least some costs could be recovered. Also I know this then relies on people's honesty, but maybe worth trialling?

[mpsamuels]

I can honestly say I took all my stuff home with me...even squirreled away a few extra beers that those around us couldn't be bothered to carry home.

Not that it's an excuse but I can half understand the argument that people are too tired/lazy to bother to carry their tent somewhere on the Monday. When some of the smaller two/three man tents are barely £50, in the throwaway society we are now, some people just seem to add them to the expense of the festival and forget about it. The on-going rumor that any tents left behind go to charity doesn't help either. I know this isn't actually the case and the festival try to make that clear but the message still doesn't seem to get through to all. The thing that put me off of taking some stuff down to the collection points myself was the thought that I might accidentally steal a tent from someone who had just gone for a walk about rather than abandoned it. Maybe a "I was too lazy to pack my tent, this is now fair game" label system would help!? 

The one sight that really grated on me though was that of a young(ish) girl (certainly old enough to know better) stood by a stage opening a tin of cider from her bag, pouring the content of the tin into a plastic cup/straw combo thing she had, dropping said tin straight to the floor and proceeding to stamp it flat with four or five stamps of her foot! If you can be bothered to carry full tins of cider and a pointless container around all day then ensure that the empties are flattened once on the floor, surely it's easier to just make the effort to deposit the empty tin into a bin!?

[Respectfatfrog]

1 hour ago, howlin_pete said:

Just had a chat with someone at work who said 'I presume you left your tent'? Thought it was a bizarre question, guys it might be the mentality of people who don't attend the festival often or read up about the waste afterwards

2 people asked me this, I asked why I would and they said well that's what people do

[alibear]

I left my tent, but only after packing it up fully and leaving it next to a bin. It's a few years old now and has gaffer tape all over it. Apparently they are collected and donated to refugees, but I couldn't find any info about where to take it.

I'd have only thrown it away when I got home anyway so I thought if I left it there it had more chance of going to a worthy cause. Hopefully that's not offensive! I saw loads of tents left behind on the way out, plus another scrunched up and left next to a bin, so people couldn't get to the actual bin without moving a load of stuff out of the way! 

Everything else I took was of course either taken home or binned in the correct places.

[Quark]

3 hours ago, Spindles said:

I took more tents home than I brought, disposed of more rubbish than I created (by a huge margin, I generated a quarter bin bag of landfill, but cleared up around where I was and got 4 big bags of landfill and 4 of recycled), I encouraged people to pack up and take home abandoned tents and equipment to use for future festivals also, so that probably got a handful of tents re-used.  I figure the best I can do is offset some of the selfishness myself, if you care enough about the issue step up and do more, put more in than you take out of everything in life and you leave the world just a tiny, tiny bit better than you found it.

 

This.  All of these words.

Personally left no trace, except for the bloody trainers I left next to the car because I forgot to put them in when I was loading up.  Crushed my cider cups in one of my many many pockets until I got to a bin, used the urinals and a midninght piss bottle, all that good stuff.

What I will do next time is what Spindles has said.  Once my pitch is done, I'll do the nearest abandoned one.  Sounds like a plan.

[jed123]

Throughout the weekend, our campsite became a tip - even people slating us for it. Until the Monday when the pre-packed bin bags and marigolds our group brought were utilised to clean the entire place as well dismantling and taking home all our tents. I'd've liked the people slating our campsite to have returned Monday morning.
Lived like animals for 5 days but left no trace...!

[Francine]

I told off several people in my group for dropping their empty cans on the ground... Not only is it plain old littering, but discarded bottles and other rubbish were treacherous when disguised by that mud!!!

Also told a couple of my friends that if they didn't want to take their tent home they should at least bag it up properly and give it to a steward  It really surprises me that people are ok leaving the site in such a tip. It's a farm, not a bar that is easy to mop up!

[The Red Telephone]

Left no trace 

The amount of tents left over in Worthy View was nothing short of scandalous, however.

[Curlygirl]

I only witnessed one man weeing on the land, and this was in a hedge right next to the empty toilets! Needless to say I shamed him. Every time I went to a bin, I collected rubbish on the way from the ground. I didn't drop one item of litter. I would've packed up other tents but had a trip to the farm before the bus so didn't have time 

[bsolxiv]

How about selling a "tent ticket" for £50. For every tent you take you need to buy a ticket, as you enter, you surrender your tent ticket. When you leave the site, stewards hand over a ticket for every tent leaving the site. Send this back to GFL (or send a unique code) for a refund.

[5co77ie]

dropped a Rizla on Thursday night - still haunts me that does

[Curlygirl]

2 minutes ago, bsolxiv said:

How about selling a "tent ticket" for £50. For every tent you take you need to buy a ticket, as you enter, you surrender your tent ticket. When you leave the site, stewards hand over a ticket for every tent leaving the site. Send this back to GFL (or send a unique code) for a refund.

This I like!! I still think people would leave them behind... But the money paid and not collected back would pay for the clean up of the tents

[Curlygirl]

2 minutes ago, 5co77ie said:

dropped a Rizla on Thursday night - still haunts me that does

Was it your last one??

[5co77ie]

1 minute ago, Curlygirl said:

Was it your last one??

effectively - not long after that I had my tobacco pouch knicked from Manic Organic

 

 

...I just assumed that was karma

Edited July 1, 2016 by 5co77ie

[bsolxiv]

2 minutes ago, 5co77ie said:

dropped a Rizla on Thursday night - still haunts me that does

Oh my god was that you? Be grateful I've run out of downvotes.

i feel sick.

[rubenz]

Just now, 5co77ie said:

dropped a Rizla on Thursday night - still haunts me that does

A seagull probably choked on that you heartless beast! 

[5co77ie]

Just now, bsolxiv said:

Oh my god was that you? Be grateful I've run out of downvotes.

i feel sick.

[Curlygirl]

Just now, 5co77ie said:

effectively - not long after that I had my tobacco pouch knicked from Manic Organic

Never!! Don't they know who you are? Cretins. Hope it wasn't your weekends worth. 

[5co77ie]

Just now, Curlygirl said:

Never!! Don't they know who you are? Cretins. Hope it wasn't your weekends worth. 

ironically I'd been busted by security earlier that day and they'd taken my weekend's worth - so it wasn't too much of a loss

[incident]

2 minutes ago, bsolxiv said:

How about selling a "tent ticket" for £50. For every tent you take you need to buy a ticket, as you enter, you surrender your tent ticket. When you leave the site, stewards hand over a ticket for every tent leaving the site. Send this back to GFL (or send a unique code) for a refund.

One of the better suggestions I've seen, but it'd still involve a huge amount of admin to enact - you'd need to have gate crew enforcing it 24/7 for at least a 10 day period, have provision for people who forgot to buy tickets, or who bought a tent on site, tents being brought beforehand or taken back afterwards by staff, etc.. Basically there'd be a fairly huge admin overhead and at absolute minimum about 100 extra stewards needed (probably more than twice that to do it properly).

Unfortunately, paying a cleanup crew £7.50 / hour + 3 meals a day would probably still work out significantly more economical overall.