Glastonbury Festival is hoping to reduce its environmental impact by banning single-use plastic bottles for all 200,000 festival-goers, as well as performers and staff.
Glastonbury Festival is banning single-use plastics. Image by Ollie Millington/Redferns via Getty
In the aftermath of the annual Glastonbury Festival it has become the norm to see images of rubbish-strewn fields shared across social media. In 2016, the Glastonbury Free Press reported that festival-goers left 500,000 bags of rubbish and 1022 tons of recycling on the festival site. The festival gets rid of rubbish by recycling and composting wherever possible but single-use plastics can’t be recycled and end up in landfill and our oceans.
Acknowledging the need to cut back on waste, festival organisers will not supply plastic bottles to any festival attendees, performers or staff. That means plastic bottles won’t be available anywhere on site, even in dressing rooms or VIP tents backstage. While people won’t be barred from bringing their own reusable plastic bottles with them, festival staff are encouraging attendees to take as little single-use plastic as possible.
Departing festival goers pass rubbish left behind at the Glastonbury Festival 2016. Image by Matt Cardy/Getty
Free drinking water is available from all bars across the site and the number of kiosks run by charity WaterAid will be tripled. Cans of soft drinks and spring water are still available to purchase at the festival.
More than one million plastic bottles were sold at the Worthy Farm music event in 2017 and staff have recognised their need to reduce the flow of waste. In a statement festival organiser Emily Eavis said: “It’s paramount for our planet that we all reduce our plastic consumption and I’m thrilled that, together, we’ll be able to prevent over a million single-use plastic bottles from being used at this year’s festival.”
The clear up begins at the Glastonbury Festival in 2016. Image by Getty Images
She added: “I really hope that everyone – from ticket-holder to headliner – will leave Worthy Farm this year knowing that even small, everyday changes can make a real difference. It’s now or never.”
The festival, which takes place in Somerset, runs from Wednesday, 26 June until Sunday, 30 June this summer. Stormzy, Janelle Monáe and Kylie Minogue are the first headline acts to be announced but further details are expected soon. To stay up-to-date on Glastonbury news, see here.
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