How Many Towens Skips Would It Take to Clean Up After Glastonbury
June 19, 2024|News
In just a matter of weeks, the world’s biggest music festival is set to descend on the Somerset countryside once again.
And whilst the 200,000 revellers set to attend will no doubt ‘Dance the Night’ away to Dua Lipa on the Friday night, or enjoy the ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’ when Coldplay take to the Pyramid Stage, they’re also unlikely to leave without a trace…
Indeed, the Glastonbury aftermath is always a sight to behold, with around 2,000 tonnes of waste expected to be generated from the 46th edition of the Pilton pilgrimage.
Of course, given the environmental consequences of such an event, it’s important that the waste is disposed of in an appropriate manner. At Towens, we offer skip-hire services and are incredibly conscious that all waste isn’t wasted, hence our innovative recycling methods.
However, the scale of the Glastonbury clean-up did get us wondering – how many Towens skips would it take to clean up after Glastonbury?
How much waste does Glastonbury create?
In recent years it’s been reported that 2,000 tonnes of waste is created from the festival – to put that into a bit of perspective, that’s the same as one and a half Clifton Suspension Bridges, six Boeing 747 jets, 400 T Rex’s, or 35,714 Shania Twain’s.
This waste largely includes food, plastic bags, disposable vapes, camping equipment, and other general litter.
Numerically, this works out to around 5,000 tents, 6,500 sleeping bags, 400 gazebos, and 54 tonnes of cans and plastic bottles.
It’s no surprise given the calibre of acts that music fans have had the pleasure of witnessing at Worthy Farm over the years – with recent star performers including Sir Elton John for his final UK show, Billie Eilish, Sir Paul McCartney, Brandon Flowers’ Killers, the Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, Lewis Capaldi, and Adele.
How Towens make waste sustainable
At Towens, we dispose of 50,000 tonnes of waste each year, the equivalent of 25 Glastonbury Festivals clear ups. It also equals around 50 cargo ships, 33 Clifton Suspension Bridges, or 1,250 Pyramid Stages.
Although whilst Glastonbury Festival successfully recycle around 60% of the waste they receive, at Towens our waste management team recycle, reuse, reduce, repurpose, or recover over 92% of all waste brought in by our skips.
Our philosophy is to treat waste as a resource, trying to find as many ways as possible to recycle or reuse everything that comes to us.
This reduces the impact of the waste on the environment and decreases reliance on virgin materials such as forestry products and fibre.
We’re also working closely alongside several businesses to reduce their waste and carbon footprint – with our skip hire services in Glastonbury a great way of achieving this.
Glastonbury’s Pledge
Glastonbury Festival organisers are working hard when it comes to pledging to reduce their environmental footprint, however.
They’ve put a great deal of effort into their recycling incentives and green pledge, which includes encouraging reusable cups, plates, and cutlery, as well as placing several recycling stations.
Where possible, festival attendees are encouraged to take their rubbish or leftover equipment home with them, even if it does make that campsite walk on the Monday morning feel a little heavier.
The total clean-up operation usually takes over three weeks and is aided by around 1,300 volunteers.
How many skips would the Glastonbury clean-up require?
At Towens, we offer skips in various sizes, including two-yard, four-yard, six-yard, eight-yard, and 12-yard options, with some designed for general waste, others soil and stone, and others wood.
In this case, we’ll use the 8-yard skip as an example, and work out how many it would take to remove the 2,000 tonnes of waste caused by Glastonbury.
Whilst these calculations are approximate, we translated 2,000 tonnes of waste to 10,000 cubic metres.
With each skip coming in at approximately 6.1m cubed, this works out at a dizzying 1,639 Towens skips being required for the Glastonbury clear-up.
About Towens
At Towens, we’re a lot more than a skip-hire company – although we do offer exceptional, versatile, and affordable skip hire services in the Glastonbury and wider Somerset area.
Based in Weston Super Mare near Bristol, around 30 miles from the Worthy Farm site, we provide waste management services, tipper hire, aggregates and soils from our recycled products, and much more.
Sustainability is at the heart of all we do, and as a family business for over 30 years, we’re determined to make a difference.
We’re currently in the process of creating a recycled aggregates plant in Westonzoyland, little over 20 miles from the Glastonbury Festival site near Pilton.
To get in contact, you can call our friendly customer service team on 01934 424242, or by filling out our online form.
