The great Glastonbury clean-up begins as rubbish is str

Work is underway on the mammoth task of cleaning up after one of the biggest parties of the summer in UK. 

Glastonbury Festival has been home to a population of 200,000 over the past five days but the Worthy Farm site has been left strewn with rubbish once again.

It comes despite climate change and the environment being the theme of the festival, which banned single-use plastic bottles and provided water in cans or at refill sites.

Highlights of the musical extravaganza in Pilton, Somerset, have included headliners Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure as well as performances from Kylie Minogue and Lewis Capaldi.

The festival may have a reputation for mud and rain but this year’s event was instead hot and sunny, with temperatures reaching more than 28C. 

Plastic bottles have been seen left lying around despite Glastonbury organisers banning the sale of them at this year’s festival and making the environment the theme of the festival

Canisters once containing nitrous oxide, aka ‘hippy crack’ were among the debris strewn around the Somerset site

More than 1,000 volunteers are at the site now clearing up waste, pictured, but it could take six weeks to shift it all

Bins have been overflowing with cans, paper and food waste while organisers have pleaded with revellers to take all of their own camping equipment with them

Organisers previously urged those attending to bring sturdy tents and return home with them, instead of dumping them at the end of the event.

In an interview with the Glastonbury Free Press on Sunday, Emily Eavis said: ‘I really hope they will.

‘We’ve made so many positive strides with our green campaigns this year.

‘It’s incredible to think that there will be one million fewer plastic bottles for the planet to deal with because we’ve stopped selling them.

‘The most eye opening part of the weekend for me was not seeing any plastic bottles in the bins or on the ground.

‘I think people are really starting to understand how important it is to treat the land with respect, and to stop living a disposable lifestyle.’

There were more than one million plastic drinks bottles sold at the festival in 2017, and zero sold in 2019.

The oath includes the lines ‘I will use the recycling bins correctly and not drop litter on the ground’ and ‘I will bag up my rubbish in the bin bag

In total, 45 tonnes of aluminium cans were processed on site, while 4,500 litres of cooking oil was turned into biofuel.

More than 1,300 recycling volunteers are at Glastonbury Festival each year, while more than 10,000 trees have been planted locally since 2000.

This year, there were 850 water points on the 900-acre site, with 37 WaterAid refill kiosks.

Around 40% of festival-goers get to Glastonbury by public transport.

The mission to convert the event’s site back into a functioning dairy farm could take up to six weeks.

Next year, Glastonbury Festival will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

‘We won’t be slowing down for very long,’ Emily Eavis said.

‘We have already started working on next year’s 50th anniversary.

‘Trust me when I say we are planning a huge celebration.’