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A huge issue nowadays is the littering at festivals.
I’m doing an University final year design project where i will be designing a product using recyclable waste from festivals.
Here is a survey that i’m conducting to understand and gather more details on this subject.
It would be very helpful if anyone could complete it. Takes no more than 2 minutes!
[https://forms.gle/P33rq4wQhHUUULhx8](https://forms.gle/P33rq4wQhHUUULhx8)
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View Reddit by Long_Vegetable7874 – View Source
12 Responses
So like… as a festival organiser, it would be their responsibility to pay a crew to completely clean the area afterwards right??
Is the issue that when all is said and done there is still litter on the ground after the cleaning crew leaves?
feel like i gotta throw in that i dont litter at these things but like… is the issue that festivals need to put more money into cleaning the venue afterwards? not dissimillar to an indoor show where a crew cleans the building afterwards.
at electric forest, after the last band goes off stage, everyone picks up all the trash. there’s actually a prize cart you can bring trash to and when things from.
Some of the bigger festivals (forest and Roo specifically) have multiple teams. One gathers the usable goods (tents, coolers, chairs, etc) to be sold or donated (profits also donated). The second wave chucks the big stuff into trucks/trailers, the third wave puts everything in piles so the trucks/trailers can come back and limp it out. Iv even seen “trash harvesters” (for lack of a better term) that basically comb the area for anything “scoopable”. Then they get the majority of the crew/volunteers to just go out and bag all the small stuff. Some of the smaller Fests they use venues like campgrounds or kids summer camps generally have a last round of people “micropick” the whole place so things like used balloons, baggies, and other general trash doesent get left behind for the general patrons of the vanue(don’t want kids finding half used baggies of…)
Thesis statement: break down and clean up is just as big a part of a festivals planing as set up
Just as an aside, people straight up ditch all their camping gear sometimes. I’ve seen people who come in with a whole set up from Walmart, use it for the weekend, then throw it away on Monday morning. Maybe they are flying home and can’t take it, or maybe they just don’t want to deal with hauling it all back out of the fest after a long weekend. Idk but either way it’s so wasteful and seeing it hurts my soul.
I even see some festival influencers recommending this as a “hack” if you’re flying in, just pre order it all at Walmart so you don’t have to pay for carry on bags. They always conveniently leave off the end result though, which is that you have to find something to do with it at the end of the weekend. Sometimes you can give it away, sometimes you can donate it, but most often I see people just toss it all in the nearest trash pile. Perfectly good tents, tarps, chairs etc… that will end up in a a land fill.
I would love to see more festivals take this on and maybe offer free onsite donation collections for this type of gear that can then be donated somewhere.
I think festivals are one of the worst offenders of plastic 1 time use waste. The amount of non recycleable materials left and/or discarded after a fest is crazy.
I’ve seen a conveyor system in use at Resonace in the past where a small team was separating trash from recycling. There are some smaller fests that do better than others.
Bonnaroo is hands down the most efficient with trash and recycling. They are super cognizant of the amount of waste/trash at fests, and try hard to combat it. There is no more plastic being used on “The Farm”. All vendors are required to use single use paper/recycling/decompose friendly products. Yes, all cups, plates, utensils, are paper and recycling friendly. Roo also does really good with multiple, easy to see recycling and trash receptacles. They also collect all “good” products for donations (tents, easy ups, chairs, air mattresses), have trash sorters to FIND any recycling goods in their trash.
I don’t have all examples in front of me, but they send out an email every year detailing their sustainability, and how they plan to do more next year. Check it out!! Great examples and would prolly give you a ticket and let you roam the campgrounds and scour their goods for use in your project. Just an idea!!
Oh and camp bisco is by far the worse campgrounds I’ve seen after a fest. Absolutely disgusting, and actually forced me to do a recheck of my goods and what I could do better as an individual to not add to the mess.
I’ve seen a few European festivals where you have to put down a deposit to get a really nice plastic mug, usually with a handle that you can hook it onto your belt. They get local artists to create multiple designs, so not only do you have a reusable cup for the weekend, you also get a souvenir of the fest.
There is zero cup trash at these fests as even if you were to drop your mug, someone else will turn it it in for the refund.
Welcome to Rockville did a great job keeping it picked up this past weekend!
It might be interesting for you to reach out to DGTL festival. They are really focussing on making the festival sustainable and producing zero waste. They have one guy on their team who is fully focussed on sustainability. With all the actions they are taking, it is more polluting to stay a day at home, when living in Amsterdam, than to attend the festival.
I think i remember Firefly used to donate anything left behind to homeless shelters, so people left a good bit of stuff behind for a good cause. With that being said pick up your garbage at least lol
You should take a look into [Clean Vibes ](https://cleanvibes.com/). Worked with them at a bunch of festivals over the years. They’d be able to give you some help.