More than 60 festivals across the UK are banding together to help put a stop to single-use tents. The group is also urging major retailers like Argos and Tesco to stop marketing such items.
According to a report it’s estimated that around 250,000 tents are left at festivals across the UK each year, this amounts to approximately 900 tons of plastic waste every festival season. If people were donating them to charities it would be one thing, but the reality is most of these barely-used tents go straight to the dumps.
The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) speaks on behalf of festivals like Shambala, Boomtown Fair and Boardmasters. All of which support the initiative to stop single-use tents and reduce plastic waste.
In 2018, these music festivals pledged to cut down on plastic at events. This resulted in a drastic cut to single-use items like plastic straws, drink cups and more. A glitter ban was also instated across the 60+ festivals.
CEO of the AIF Paul Reed speaking about this said:
“We call upon major retailers to stop marketing and selling tents and other camping items as essentially single-use, and profiting from disposable culture.”
“The message here is not ‘buy a more expensive tent’… festival audiences can take positive action and reduce their carbon footprint simply by taking their tent home and reusing it, ensuring that it doesn’t become a single-use item this summer.”
Over in the states, Electric Forest is making an effort towards reducing their carbon footprint with eco-friendly tents. Their option is a rather pricey one though. But hopefully, in the future, we’ll see more options for affordable eco-tents.
So if you are buying a tent for a music festival, please use it until it wears out or just donate it if you don’t need it anymore. Tents most definitely aren’t trash to leave behind.
