NEWS
EVENTS
Party hard, stay green
Other | Tuesday 21st July 2015 | Christina
Glastonbury, one festival that prides itself on its green ethos, has been and gone for another year, and despite the event’s “Love Worthy Farm, Leave No Trace” campaign, a big old pile of trash (estimated at 1650 tonnes) was left behind. We all like to party hard, but it is possible to go mad and stay green at the same time.
Drink, don’t drive
Use public transport or buy a coach package to travel to and from the festival – it’s more environmentally friendly and you can get trollied on the last night in good conscience because you’re not the designated driver. If you really don’t fancy the bus, a car share also lowers emissions, cuts down on petrol costs and could even earn you a few new mates.
Take your shit home with you
Putting rubbish in the bin is probably the biggest and best green thing you can do at a festival, and it’s not even hard – there were 40,000 bins at Glastonbury this year, all colour coded and everything. The second biggest thing is taking all the stuff that won’t fit in the bin home with you. Thousands of tents get abandoned at festivals each year, meaning they end up in landfills. If you leave your tent behind, you’re also throwing cash down the drain as well, especially if you go to multiple festivals a year. Recycle or donate your tent if you really, really don’t want it. Alternatively you could take advantage of the semi-permanent tents, wigwams and yurts provided by the festival – it saves you from doing any work and you can camp in style. And who doesn’t love saying “wigwam”.
Toilets only
Festival toilets can be a struggle, especially after four days, but they are there for a reason. Many festivals are held on farms and peeing on the land is not good for the environment and wildlife, and if it gets into the water it kills the fish.
Reuse!
Bring reusable bottles of cups with you. It doesn’t matter if you’re filling them with water or gin as long as you keep using the same one. A lot of drinks stalls at festivals also give you money off if you buy drinks with your reusable cups, so you can get drunk and make a tidy saving at the same time.
Preparation, preparation, preparation
Before you head off for the best weekend of your year, remove all the excess packaging from your stuff. Your back will thank you for trimming off any weight from your rucksack, and there’ll be less shit for you to leave behind because you left it all at your mum’s house.
Eat good food
Eating delicious street food, such a hardship right? Food at festivals has come a hell of a long way and now you get tons of choice. Many stalls use local produce and recyclable materials anyway, but it’s always worth asking before you tuck in.
