Story Archive

Misdirected Charity

A festival or two once announced that tents left behind when the fun was over would be collected for charity, says Teresa Moore of A Greener Festival. Now, says Matt Wedge of Festival Waste Reclamation & Distribution, “there is a common misconception that leaving your tent is like making a donation.” Wedge, who worked with 200 volunteers after a festival in Leeds, England, said that even after volunteers take what abandoned goods they can for the needy, “up to 90 percent gets left behind” as trash. And the marketing of “festival tents” at low prices, suggesting that they’re disposable, doesn’t help. “There was a time when charities could collect a small amount of left behind tents and donate them to a good cause,” said Emma Priestland of Friends of the Earth, “but increasingly tents are flimsily constructed so they become single use items” and are trashed. She called the tents “avoidable plastic pollution.” (AC/London Telegraph) ...Are the festival songs about pollution pro or con?