Tents recycling scandal at Balado

Jul 22 2008 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

LESS than 100 unwanted tents were recycled after T in the Park, it emerged yesterday.

Sixty thousand campers attended the three-day event’s arena at the former Balado airfield earlier this month.

But the ‘PA’ can reveal that despite being named as one of Europe’s greenest festivals, less than one per cent. of all tents that are left behind will be re-used.

Despite the shocking statistic, T organisers yesterday claimed an invitation to festival-goers to give second-hand tents to charity had been a success.

DF Concerts spokeswoman Ellen Purves said the use of campsite recycling deposit points had been inspired by a similar project employed at other festivals, Give Me Shelter.

Last year, homeless families in Transylvania received tents donated at T, which proudly boasts it is the world’s biggest carbon-neutral festival.

“Campers leave their tents in on-site deposit areas and they are picked up by a dedicated team who contact charities,” Ms Purves explained yesterday.

“The tents can go to refugees and people displaced through war and famine anywhere in the world, to provide them with temporary accommodation.

“Because the scheme operates on a short-term basis we haven’t got a list of charities they are going to, but Oxfam, Shelter and Christian Aid are usually involved.

“We simply provide the charities with the resources. After that, it’s up to them to use the tents where they are needed.

“We had a really great response at this year’s T in the Park, our best yet.”

On the official T in the Park website’s camping page, a footnote posted ahead of the festival states that tents should be “taken away or recycled on site”.

Although many campers mistakenly believed their tents would go to charity if left in situ, Ms Purves defended the firm’s decision to send all bar a handful of the unwanted items to landfill, in line with the internet warning.

“We cannot rescue all the tents that were left, but we are trying to educate people to dispose of them responsibly,” she said.

“Our aim is to let campers know, if they just walk away and leave their tent behind, they’re polluting the environment.

“It is a disposable culture we live in, but to their credit, most people keep the site clean.

“The rest are deciding to trash and litter the site. There is an opportunity for recycling, but only if they take action themselves.

“Unfortunately, most of the tents that are left behind are graffitied, soiled and damaged.

“They just get thrown out because we don’t have the manpower to restore them.”

The spokeswoman described this year’s recycling effort as tentatively “dipping our toes in the water”.

“We plan to develop the scheme over the next few years,” she added.

“It’s about getting the message across, if you don’t want your tent, somebody else will.

“People will happily pay £30 for a tent and walk away from it.

“Anything usable found left by our clear up teams will be retrieved.

“Also good condition sleeping bags, footwear and sleeping mats can be picked up.

“There’s room for improvement, but it’s exciting to see how people have taken our message on board this year.”

Neil Lovelock, of the Scottish Community Recycling Network, praised T in the Park for its recycling efforts, but said more needed to be done.

“The organisers are making year on year improvements to the festival’s overall environmental profile,” he said.

“However, it’s always going to be challenging trying to do that with so many people, especially with many enjoying a good drink.

“The tent proposal is a good one, but there is a communication issue. People going to camp need to be made fully aware of the services that exist.”

Mr Lovelock said that rather than going for the cheap option, responsible campers should buy good quality tents that can be reused.

“Tents appear on the supermarket shelves for not much more than the cost of a case of lager, but they shouldn’t be seen as a one-off purchase,” he added.

Insisting the blame for the tent scandal lay firmly with campers, Ochil and South Perthshire MP Gordon Banks said he raised his recycling concerns at Balado.

“I discussed this very issue with the event organisers when I attended the event and they shared my disappointment that more tents could not be recycled,” he told the PA yesterday.

“I don’t believe that festival goers leave their tents behind in the expectation they will be recycled.

“There are undoubtedly opportunities to be more environmentally friendly, but that depends greatly on the resources of the event organisers and there are also health and safety issues to be considered.

“However I will raise this issue with the organisers at the regular meetings in the run up to next year’s event.

“Hopefully a more environmentally friendly scheme is put in place.”

Ochil MSP Keith Brown also called for changes.

“I would be concerned if anyone is not taking advantage of the opportunity to recycle because of a miscommunication,” he said.

“I will take the earliest opportunity to raise this with the organisers to get a firm idea of the scale of the problem.”