Volunteers in the United Kingdom are preventing unnecessary waste while helping those in need, according to the BBC.
The charities Herts for Refugees and Emmaus Hertfordshire together recovered 260 tents and 150 sleeping bags from the Isle of Wight Festival this summer. These items will go to people without housing.
Emmaus Hertfordshire's business development manager, Gemma Beckett, said the recovery will "provide essential shelter and warmth to displaced people," per the BBC.
Herts for Refugees engaged in similar recovery operations for the same festival in 2023 and 2024 and for Boomtown in Hampshire in 2022. Similar piles of trash have been left behind at Bonnaroo, Reading, and Electric Forest. One estimate suggests that 250,000 tents are abandoned at music festivals in the U.K. every summer.
Besides being a tacky imposition on those doing cleanup, abandoned tents and sleeping bags pose a significant environmental threat. When left to decompose, tents shed microplastics like any other synthetic fabric. These particles find their way into the food we eat. When humans ingest them, they can introduce endocrine, immune, digestive, and reproductive issues.
Fabrics also emit methane as they decompose. This atmospheric pollutant worsens destructive weather patterns such as floods and droughts. Among other things, it indirectly contributes to agricultural challenges and increases in home insurance rates.
Luckily, festival trash can occasionally find its way back to use. Some organizations have funneled towels to animal rescues, while others have upcycled abandoned tents into scrunchies and totes.
Despite the good work these organizations are doing, it's only scratching the surface of the wider issue of abandonment at festivals.
"The bigger picture environmentally has to be considered. ... We can only take such a small amount compared to what's left behind," said Herts for Refugees CEO Angus Clark, per the BBC.
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