Love the farm , Leave no Trace

[The_Fish]

Have they switched from paper cups to reusable plastic with a deposit yet? That seems like such a no brainer

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, The_Fish said:

Have they switched from paper cups to reusable plastic with a deposit yet? That seems like such a no brainer

Who's gonna carry a plastic cup from the centre of the pyramid back to the bar? 

 

They get dropped and contaminate the farm. 

 

They had reusable metal once , I've got one still. 

[The_Fish]

4 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Who's gonna carry a plastic cup from the centre of the pyramid back to the bar? 

 

They get dropped and contaminate the farm. 

 

They had reusable metal once , I've got one still. 

 

Then people will collect them and collect the 50p (or whatever) deposit themselves and then farm becomes cleaner. People will make piles of cups and take back a load in one go if they can't be arsed to take them back at that point.

[Twiggy553]

I love the refillable cups at smaller fests but I’ve noticed a lot of the busier bars at Glasto hand out pre-filled pints as a way of coping with high demand, which wouldn’t work if using refillable cups.

Edited May 19, 2025 by Twiggy553

[Magic Toaster]

1 minute ago, Twiggy553 said:

I love the refillable cups at smaller fests but I’ve noticed a lot of the busier bars at Glasto hand out pre-filled pints as a way of coping with high demand, which wouldn’t work if using refillable cups.

 

Tbh, efficiency shouldn't be a priority over sustainability or contamination.

[clarkete]

14 minutes ago, The_Fish said:

 

Then people will collect them and collect the 50p (or whatever) deposit themselves and then farm becomes cleaner. People will make piles of cups and take back a load in one go if they can't be arsed to take them back at that point.

I believe they tried it with plastic and they didn't get returned. 

[incident]

49 minutes ago, clarkete said:

I believe they tried it with plastic and they didn't get returned. 

 

That's true, but I'm not sure that it's really something that they can learn much from.

 

It was done on a fairly limited scale, with I think 4 different designs for the cups (Glastonbury designs - not branded with Tuborg or whatever). So it basically encouraged people to treat them as collectables, get a new one each time, and take them home. I've got a couple of them in the cupboard.

 

If they wanted to do something from a sustainability aspect, they could use plain unbranded cups as some other events do.

[clarkete]

1 minute ago, incident said:

 

That's true, but I'm not sure that it's really something that they can learn much from.

 

It was done on a fairly limited scale, with I think 4 different designs for the cups (Glastonbury designs - not branded with Tuborg or whatever). So it basically encouraged people to treat them as collectables, get a new one each time, and take them home. I've got a couple of them in the cupboard.

 

If they wanted to do something from a sustainability aspect, they could use plain unbranded cups as some other events do.

 

He he, I should have guessed that you'd have a good memory of it 😊

[Twiggy553]

The ones we got given (from a bar near the park) had a valve in the bottom that allowed them to fill using a machine from underneath. Problem was that the valves leaked after first use so they weren’t really reusable

[Skip997]

33 minutes ago, incident said:

 

 

 

If they wanted to do something from a sustainability aspect, they could use plain unbranded cups as some other events do.

Unsurprisingly Shambala took this route a couple of years back 

[broken monkey]

Working for the post festival clear up team this year, so hoping to have a nice easy job because everyone has taken their crap home with them. Fingers crossed!

[Magic Toaster]

17 minutes ago, broken monkey said:

Working for the post festival clear up team this year, so hoping to have a nice easy job because everyone has taken their crap home with them. Fingers crossed!

I wish I was as optimistic as you!

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, Magic Toaster said:

I wish I was as optimistic as you!

it is so much better than it was .... encourage and engage people and youll usually find most are happy to be educated . its all about taking steps forward from the previous one , the reduction in plastic and encouraging the reusing of bottles is a recent step forward too . notable new addition this year is toilets in the park .... was always a problem area 

[Magic Toaster]

7 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

it is so much better than it was .... encourage and engage people and youll usually find most are happy to be educated . its all about taking steps forward from the previous one , the reduction in plastic and encouraging the reusing of bottles is a recent step forward too . notable new addition this year is toilets in the park .... was always a problem area 

 

I guess I'm still a bit of a newbie compared to a lot of people on here. The litter and detritus left behind after sets at big stages or on Monday afternoon has always looked bad to me, but then again I don't have much context of what it was like back in the 90's or 2000's...!

Edited May 19, 2025 by Magic Toaster

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Magic Toaster said:

 

I guess I'm still a bit of a newbie compared to a lot of people on here. It's always looked bad, but then again I don't have much context of what it was like back in the 90's or 2000's...!

theres still far too much sh*t left but it is getting better . 

[Madyaker]

I’d like to see reusable cups but at loads of the bars they seem to pre pour the pints into the regular paper cups and then just hand them out as people order. So even if you have a reusable cup a paper cup is still used and then binned, not really reducing waste 

[Simsy]

3 hours ago, Twiggy553 said:

I love the refillable cups at smaller fests but I’ve noticed a lot of the busier bars at Glasto hand out pre-filled pints as a way of coping with high demand, which wouldn’t work if using refillable cups.

Pre-filled pints shouldn't be a problem - you hand over your empty cup, they chuck it in the dirty pile and hand over a fresh 1 that's already filled. The main logistical issue is going to be cleaning all the used cups and redistributing them round the bars (and getting people to return them in the first place)

[giantkatestacks]

The crew bars all use reusable cups for cocktails and soft drinks and the like. We mistakenly come home with them all gah.

[SouthbanKen]

8 hours ago, Twiggy553 said:

I love the refillable cups at smaller fests but I’ve noticed a lot of the busier bars at Glasto hand out pre-filled pints as a way of coping with high demand, which wouldn’t work if using refillable cups.

Yes it would you just hand over your old cup and get a new one in return. Happens all over the continent. 

[Blownimpression]

As someone said above, they’ve got to give an incentive to return the cups, either reusable or not. The couple of times I’ve been to Download and they offered 10p or 20p per paper cup returned. So you’d get people walking through the crowd picking up empties and then exchanging them at the booth for cash for their next round/food etc. kept the area tidier.

[Chazwozza]

Also happens at Green Man ✅ 

Edited May 19, 2025 by Chazwozza
Meant to quote @southbanken above

[The_Fish]

Pretty much every event in Germany has Pfand (deposit) attached to the bottles/glasses, getting them returned is easy. If you get €5 back for returning your glass, you are going to do it. €5 is pretty rare tbh, it's usually €1-2 per glass or bottle. 

 

Almost every plastic and glass bottle also has a deposit on it so you keep your empties and then return them to the supermarket so they have that mentality in the first place which makes it easier I guess, but if you get 50p or a quid back every time you return your plastic pint glass, you're much more likely to do it.

 

If they want to have fancy Glasto ones then it can also be a profit making thing, have 2 quid deposit on every glass and when some inevitably get taken as souvenirs (I have some Euro 2024 ones in my cupboard...) then they are being reused and they'll easily cost less than 2 quid to produce. Either way, less paper cups on the ground. 

[jonnyisRFC]

I came up with business idea once which solved the “disposable” pint cup at festivals (I won’t bore you all with the details!). I pitched it to a few festival organisers, their man concern with reusable cups is hygiene, for example when Glastonbury trialled the metal reusable pint cup, the beer still had to be poured into a paper cup, and then poured into your metal cup, and then the paper cup got binned. Pointless eh? 

[ohyeswellifyouthinkso]

20 hours ago, Magic Toaster said:

 

Tbh, efficiency shouldn't be a priority over sustainability or contamination.

You say that until your stuck in a half hour queue at a bar waiting for individual cups to be filled. Your friends are waiting for you / a band is about to start.....   I suspect you'd soon change your mind at that point 

[Quark]

55 minutes ago, jonnyisRFC said:

I came up with business idea once which solved the “disposable” pint cup at festivals (I won’t bore you all with the details!). I pitched it to a few festival organisers, their man concern with reusable cups is hygiene, for example when Glastonbury trialled the metal reusable pint cup, the beer still had to be poured into a paper cup, and then poured into your metal cup, and then the paper cup got binned. Pointless eh? 

I find my metal cup depends on the bar. Still quite often get that filled directly, but sometimes get a paper one instead.

 

It's definitely better at smaller festivals where they've got a bit more breathing space to fill a cup directly.

 

Selfishly I much prefer my metal cup, keeps the cider colder!