Late stage capitalism has cheerfully expanded the definition of disposability, to the point where people will fork out forty quid for a tent then disown it after three days’ use.
Take your tent home please
An estimated 250,000 tents are abandoned at festivals across the UK each year. This amounts to roughly 875 tonnes of camping equipment.
With less than three weeks until Reading and Leeds Festival returns, the litter experts at Divert.co.uk are urging campers to plan how they will get their equipment home.
Last year, the Reading site alone generated 584.3 tonnes of waste, which is 17% less than the previous year. This included 56.85 tonnes of tents, down from 71.22 tonnes in 2024 and 80.12 tonnes in 2023. The figures are at least moving in the right direction.
The festival says 87% of its waste was recycled or composted last year. And campers took home 68% of tents. Even so, abandoned tents still made up 9.7% of everything thrown away by weight.
To put that into context, an average festival tent weighs 3.5kg. Dividing Reading’s 56.85 tonnes of tent waste by this figure gives the equivalent of approximately 16,243 tents. Replacing the same number with a three-person tent costing £39.99 means that an estimated £649,552 of tents are left behind.
How can campers reduce their waste this year?
OK, most people don’t go to a festival in order to live by the rules. But a little bit of organisation and thinking ahead can actually make things easier and less hassle.
Agree who is carrying what
Groups often share tents, chairs, food and other supplies on the way into a festival. But when it comes to leaving it may be less clear who’s responsible for them. Decide this before travelling and check you can still carry the load once the weekend is over.
Tent bags and storage cases are easy to misplace, so keep them somewhere safe. A strong spare bag is also useful when equipment is too wet or muddy to pack away neatly.
Don’t treat a cheap tent as disposable
Just because a tent is cheap, it doesn’t mean that it should be treated as a single-use product. Borrowing one, buying second-hand or bringing equipment from home will usually cost less than starting again after every festival. And the savings will add up particularly for those who attend multiple festivals a year.
It’s worth a practice pitch of the tent before leaving for the festival. Missing pegs and small tears are much easier to deal with at home, while damaged poles and zips can be repaired or replaced.
Start sorting waste on the first day
No one wants to think about packing up and going home when they arrive at a festival. But then most people aren’t in great shape by the end. So why not make the process simpler ahead of time?
Using separate bags from the moment you set up camp stops cans and other recyclable materials falling in with food and general rubbish. Reading provides recycling bags and collection points for this purpose.
Take any broken items, such as tents, chairs, gazebos and batteries, to those points too, rather than leaving them loose on the campsite. Staff will be on hand to direct the correct waste stream for these.
Take back deposits and pass on spare food
Reading (and many other festivals) operates a 10p return on paper cups, cans and bottles. This gives campers a reason to bring them back rather than drop them or place them in general waste.
It also helps to agree who is bringing food before the festival, particularly multipacks and tins. Any unopened, non-perishable food left at the end of the weekend should go to a designated redistribution point where one is available.
John Verity, waste management expert at Divert.co.uk, said:
It’s probably not many people’s intention to leave their tent behind when they go to a festival. However, the situation can change. By Monday morning, the tent may be wet, and most people want to go home instead of cleaning up their waste.
Instead, deciding who owns each job ahead of time makes this situation far less likely and puts less stress on everyone and the environment.
It may look like leaving a tent behind instead of throwing it in the bin means that it will get a second use, but there is no guarantee that this will happen.
Salvage teams can’t recover everything that’s left behind, particularly if it is damaged or it is mixed with other rubbish. Taking it home is the simplest way to ensure it gets another use, and saves money too.
Featured image via the Canary
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