World favourite festival, Glastonbury are banning plastic bottles
Glastonbury is one of the biggest, most notorious and probably the most historical festivals in the world – and they’re going green.
Water is a vital commodity at festivals, but plastic waste is destroying the natural locations of many amazing music gatherings. Glastonbury are hoping to change that by banning the sale and use of plastic bottles at their festival, with some great initiatives to keep music lovers hydrated.
The daughter of festival founder Michael Eavis, Emily Eavis told the BBC: “There is lots going on at the moment. We’re working on banning plastic bottles… which is an enormous project and it’s taking a lot of time to tackle it with all the different people we work with. But that’s the big project at the moment for [20]18, to get rid of plastic bottles across the whole site.”
To ensure the safety and well-being of festival-goers Glastonbury will provide re-usable stainless steel bottles, which they introduced 4 years ago. There will be water kiosks spread around the site which are be free to fill up any bottles or containers from. In 2016, as part of their ‘Love the Farm, Leave no Trace’ initiative the festival offered stainless steel cups made from 90% recycled material to reduce waste. They were designed to be “non-aerodynamic” so that they couldn’t be thrown and injure people.
As discussions with their partners are still taking place they don’t know exactly when they will be able to plastic bottle free but hope to arrange it as soon as possible. A spokesperson for Glastonbury said: “It’s a massive thing which everyone at the festival is working on. [It’s] a bit early to put any flesh on the bones.”
This year is the first year since Glastonbury started in 1970 that the festival is not taking place. Eavis says they are having a year’s break as a “fallow year” to allow the ground to recover after decades of mud, rain, and masses of people stomping over the farmland. On the next line-up for the festival, Eavis said: “Everyone wants to play the 50th anniversary in two years time.”