U2 recycle 360

U2, who pleased the crowds on a rain sodden day at Glastonbury last Friday,  have announced that they are going to ‘recycle’ their massive 360° tour stage set. The band’s Tour Director Craig Evans told Billboard: “It’s certainly our intention to see these things recycled into permanent and usable ventures. It represents too great an engineering feat to just use for the tour and put away in a warehouse somewhere.We are now in discussions to send them into different places around the world and have them installed as permanent venues. Some major events have shown interest in these, from four different continents – and we haven’t even really put the word out yet” adding ”They’re something you can put up on a waterfront and become an instant skyline icon. We know that the inquiries will keep coming in. Having been part of the biggest tour of all time, they’re pretty well tried and tested. They can carry weights no other structure can consider, and since they’re already developed and designed you can probably complete [a venue] in a one-month period instead of a two-year build period”.

in April 2011 U2′s 360° tour overtook the Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang tour as the highest grossing tour of all time, making £341m with 20 gigs to go.

If you want to support the work of Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid you can download three exclusive live tracks from the three Pyramid Stage headliners at Glastonbury 2011 - U2′s I Will Follow, Coldplay’s In My Place and Beyonce’s Irreplaceable until the end of July on iTunes – see more at http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/download-u2-beyonce-and-coldplay-performances-on-itunes-raising-funds-for-glastonburys-charities

Photo: Denis O’Regan at Glastonbury 2011

BETTER FESTIVAL GROUP TACKLE TENTS

The Better Festival Group have sent us their 2010 Post Festival Season Newsletter and we were very interested in news about The BIG Tent Recycle which they have put in place with a number of festivals to divert discarded camping equipment from landfill.  A public report with pictures will be on the website in due course at www.thebetterfestivalgroup.co.uk. At Wakestock 2010 the BIG Tent Recycle was a resounding success.  It was the campaign’s pilot year, but BFG say that “everyone really got into the spirit of things and had a great time.  We diverted 277 items (780.18kg) of camping equipment from landfill and passed it onto local Scouts, a local canoe club and Homeless Charity Shelter Cymru”. BFG were also at Sonisphere 2010 and said “Sonisphere was our biggest challenge of 2010.  Not only did we have a volunteer team covering campsite hubs and main information we also ran The BIG Tent Recycle.  Everything ran really smoothly throughout this event and The BIG Tent Recycle diverted 365 items (1116.32kg) of camping equipment from landfill and passed it onto local Scouts, St Mungos Charity, Goodone and a lady who makes bags from recycled material.”

Glastonbury cleans up

Many more fan’s at this years Glastonbury have taken tents and other camping quipment home with them, in a distinct improvement on 2009. Last year 5,572 tents were left behind and 2,220 camping chairs, 3,321 airbeds, 400 gazebos and a whopping 6,538 sleeping bags were left behind to go into landfill. Lucy, the Glastonbury Green Initiatives co-ordinator posted this on the official Glasters website

“A big thank you to everyone who packed up all their camping equipment and took it home, and for putting all their rubbish into bin bags.  It made such a huge difference looking across the farm after the Festival and not seeing nearly as many abandoned tents, roll mats, sleeping bags, chairs etc. It still wasn’t perfect, but it was a LOT better than last year. Thanks to everyone for ‘TAKING IT HOME’ – and let’s work towards doing even better next year!”

But there was still masses of litter and mess on-site – I walked past the John Peel Stage and then onwards to the Pyraid Stage every morning and frankly it WAS Trash City – with unbelievable amounts of waste just discarded and left on the floor. For a interesting read, here is a link to Dave Wilson’s blog on Q107 http://www.q107.com/Blogs/UKClassicRock/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10123000 .

Our Great Big Green Ideas came up with some neat solutions to waste left at festivals, especially for tents, but the simple fact remains that if people re-use tents they are then not ‘waste’ at all – and don’t need to be either reclaimed, recycled or sent to landfill.

www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk and see the Guardian’s Blog at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/jul/02/glastonbury-litter-reusable-cups-recycled-tents

LOVE THE FARM …. LEAVE NO TRACE

New Glastonbury recycling film online now

If  you were walking in the countryside would you throw your rubbish on the floor or wait for a bin? Hmmm, some people at Glastonbury seem to think that the floor is just fine and dandy. Luckily there is a plan in place to clear up and recycle whatever the Festival can.

This short film by Joe Wheatley gives you an insight into the huge operation that takes place to keep the Glastonbury site clean during the Festival. Every can or plastic bottle that goes into the recycling bins gets sorted by hand, by our dedicated recycling team in the green barn close to Worthy Farm. The stars of this are the Litter Pickers, the villains the idle careless fans who just, well, seem to prefer to live in filth.

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/glastonbury-recycling-film

Cumbria schools make green music

Schools across the Cumbria have excelled themselves in composing songs for a new music contest called the R Factor - where pupils write lyrics to promote awareness of the three Rs of waste awareness - Reduce – Reuse – Recycle.  Working with charity MusicLinks primary schools across the county have been given the opportunity to compose a song that promotes waste awareness – and to try and reduce the massive amount of household waste sent to landfill each and every year. Since the project started in October 2008 lots of  schools have devised and recorded their own songs and now finalists will be chosen. In Cumbria the final 137 entrants have to be cut down to a final list of just 6 and now listeners to the Cumbrias’s commercial radio stations must choose a final pair for the grand final – and then the final winner of the R Factor 2009 will be announced and have their song professionally recorded.  

See www.recycleforcumbria.org