Volunteers Tackle Waste at Reading Festival

Volunteers at Reading Festival collected 2.8 tonnes of waste and repaired 264 items, but councillors have questioned how the event tracks reuse and recycling.

About 10,000 people attended the festival on Richfield Avenue. After it finished, staff, contractors and volunteers ran a major clean-up, with Lifes a Beach collecting 2.8 tonnes of material.

The amount left behind was raised at a Reading Borough Council policy committee meeting on 16 September.

Councillor Rob White (Green, Park) said: "Reading Festival is one of the UK's biggest and best-known music festivals and brings significant benefits to the town."

He added: "It is an event that Green Party councillors want people to enjoy, however, every year large numbers of tents, sleeping bags, chairs and other equipment are left behind, along with substantial amounts of other waste."

"We want to see Reading Festival become a leader in reducing waste, increasing recycling and minimising its environmental impact," he said, asking what work the council was doing with Festival Republic and whether measurable progress and data were published year-on-year.

Finn McGoldrick, lead councillor for environmental services, said: "Reading Festival is a huge asset to our town, not just because it generates an estimated £30 million for the wider Reading economy, but also because it is a flagship cultural event and in fact, a rite of passage for many Reading residents."

"I was sadly far too old and boring to go this year myself," she added.

Festival Republic measures this year included more recycling points, free recycling and general-waste bags in campsites, and a volunteer "green team" encouraging people to take belongings home. A Recycle to Win campaign drew over 1,000 participants, and a campsite repair facility run by local repair-cafe volunteers fixed 264 items.

The Lifes a Beach group collected 2,802kg over the weekend, and Cllr McGoldrick thanked "the 30 local litter-picking volunteers, who collected nearly 1.5 tonnes of waste and recycling."

"Ultimately, the aim is not simply to clear the site after the festival, but to reduce the amount of material left behind in the first place and to maximise what can be reused, repaired, donated or recycled," she said. The festival commits to sending zero waste to landfill and to a material-recovery recycling rate above 50 per cent.

Councillors will get a presentation from Festival Republic on waste figures at the housing, neighbourhoods and leisure committee in November. Cllr White asked for the tonnage left so performance can be tracked year-on-year.

He warned: "It's all good and well that what is being left behind is being reused or being made use of for energy from waste, but that is burning it to generate energy, and that's not a particularly good way to deal with the waste."

Cllr McGoldrick replied: "I take your point on tonnage about how we measure the tonnage, how residents can see that transparently and how we can report back on that year on year and track progress, and it's something that I'm very happy to work with them on."

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter