Reading & Leeds Festivals Go Green

The Reading and Leeds Festivals will this year go green with a number of recycling initiatives aimed at encouraging festival goers to recycle and help the environment.  The festivals take place between 24-26 August and will include headlining acts such as Razorlight, The View and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. 

On arrival people will be issued with a green bag for bottles, a clear bag for cans and a black bag for all other wastes.  People that fill their bags will be rewarded by being able to exchange each bag for a beer.  More bags can be collected at various locations throughout the site.

It is estimated that during the festival approximately 6 tonnes of paper beer cups will be used.  To encourage these to be recycled each cup has a return value.  There is no limit to the number of cups that each person can return, they simply have to stack the cups up and will be refunded 10 pence for each cup. 

Returning empty gas canisters and aerosols will be rewarded with raffle tickets which will go into a draw each day to win passes to the Glastonbury Festival and Reading Festival in 2008.

As well as recycling, they are also taking steps to help minimize the environmental impact on the land by providing eco-friendly shower gel and toilet paper.  The eco-friendly shower gel is made from plant and mineral based ingredients and is biodegradable.  Therefore it does not leave any harmful residues on the land or in the water after use.

After each festival hundreds, if not thousands of items are left behind, including items such as tents, sleeping bags, clothes and wellies.  To prevent these items ending up in landfill sites, the festival will be running a Give Me Shelter campaign to encourage festival goers to give these items away rather than throwing them in the bin.  This campaign will be run in connection with Global Hand and a number of other local charitable groups.