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The Glastonbury Festival is one of the biggest music festivals in the world. What takes place here every year is nothing short of amazing. Since 1970, with the occasional blip, the fields here have been transformed. Over 100 stages are erected, thousands of toilets are put in place, and some 200,000 plus people make the most of five days of fun.
The size of the festival means that if it was a city, it would be the 27th biggest in the UK. That’s phenomenal for what is a temporary structure. As we all know, cities produce pollution, and festivals themselves are hardly known to be eco-friendly, so how is Glastonbury different?
10,000 trees in 22 years
There is no getting away from the fact that Glastonbury produces waste. In fact, it produces around 2,000 tons of it. However, how Glasto differs from other festivals from around the world in that it saves around 600 tons of greenhouse emissions. How? Well, it’s all down to the trees.
Glastonbury was ahead of its time. Back in 2000, it began to plant trees to offset its carbon footprint. This means that there have now been an amazing 10,000 trees planted. These trees are responsible for absorbing some 800 tons of greenhouse gas.
Solar power
Glastonbury has always had progressive policies that were introduced to protect the environment. When you look back to 1984, there was ‘love the farm: Leave no trace’ campaign. What’s more, there has been a huge shift to using solar power and the site now has its very own solar farm.
The organiser of Croissant Neuf, Sally Howell, has recently been speaking with Betway. in her interview she’s proud of the fact that her area is run entirely on solar power. When questioned about the unpredictable British weather, and the impact that may have, she says: “We’ve never run out in all these years. We have to work out the figures with the power people will draw and book accordingly”.
Other eco-friendly measures
There has long been debate about the impact that single-use plastic bottles have on the environment. When it comes to Glastonbury, there is no debate. These bottles are banned and it’s as simple as that.
The festival also considers the environmental impact of travel. It heavily discourages people from arriving in their own cars. The festival even offers free shuttle buses that run from the train station in an attempt to recuse emissions.
Overall, this is an amazing feat
What Glastonbury has achieved almost seems miraculous. Festivals are well-known to be polluting events that are heavy in carbon emissions, but Glasto bucks the trend. There has been research that looks into the emissions that 200,000 people would create within their ordinary lives. This is then compared to 200,000 people being at Glastonbury. The research reveals that Glasto saves around 1,280 tons of emissions.
If Glasto can achieve this, the hope is that other festivals will sit up and take note. It provides the realistic prospect of music festivals becoming carbon neutral.
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