This weekend, over 200,000 people descended on Worthy Farm in Somerset for Glastonbury Festival. The event is world famous and the behind-the-scenes waste management is just as remarkable.
Glastonbury runs the UK’s largest event-operated recycling centre. Its on-site composting system means food waste is collected and processed into nutrient-rich compost at the source.
While detailed breakdowns are not published annually, the most recent figures from 2019 show that a staggering 149 tonnes of food waste were successfully composted during the festival. In just five days, the festival generates, captures and composts an average of as much food waste as 621 households do in a whole year.
149 tonnes of food waste generated in the first place, is a shocking amount. It begs some serious questions surrounding our wider waste practices and throwaway habits as a population, not least, was any of this staggering 149 tonnes edible? If so, why was it thrown?
Once food waste is generated, the only opportunity to manage it, is via effective capture and composting to avoid landfill. Glastonbury’s on-site recycling facilities takes care of this, with perhaps, surprising, efficiency. For every 1kg of food waste, just over 2.5kg of CO₂ is emitted, if that waste reaches landfill. This means that Glastonbury’s commitment to effective composting post-event, essentially eliminates 372.5 tonnes of CO₂ that would otherwise be produced!
The festival’s strategy for waste separation plays a vital role. Bins are colour-coded and clearly signed for easy waste streaming. Each is a 45-gallon metal drum, often artist-painted and designed to suit the visual energy of the event, which helps them stand out and encourages correct use. These distinctive bins have become synonymous with Glastonbury itself.
Clear signage is essential but there is a risk of contamination with such a high population density in the temporary “city” of revellers. As such, each bag of waste is manually sorted on site by volunteers to remove food waste and recyclable materials before anything is sent to landfill.
Clear signage is essential but there is a risk of contamination with such a high population density in the temporary “city” of revellers. As such, each bag of waste is manually sorted on site by volunteers to remove food waste and recyclable materials before anything is sent to landfill. It is a labour-intensive process and might suggest future scope for greater efficiency through colour-coded apertures, AI-assisted sorting or incentivisation schemes on the farm. For a festival ever-evolving, these would be exciting avenues to explore.
The household comparison and climate-saving potential
According to WRAP, the average UK household of four wastes 240kg of food every year. Across the UK, if all that food waste were landfilled rather than composted, 18 million tonnes of CO₂e would be emitted, including methane which is up to 28 times more powerful than CO₂.
Better behavioural habits need serious consideration to eliminate the occurrence of food waste in the first place. Where food waste is unavoidable, UK households can then prevent such climate-damaging emissions by diverting food from landfill sites through composting.
If it can be done at Glastonbury, where 149 tonnes of waste can be successfully captured and composted in the middle of a full-blown festival, then individual households should be making food waste recycling part of their new normal.
What’s shifted?
A cultural and behavioural shift is key to this success. Founded in 1970, the Glastonbury Festival predates mainstream awareness of climate change. However, public attitudes towards sustainability have changed, particularly in recent years as environmental awareness has sky rocketed. Emily Eavis, chief organiser and daughter of Glastonbury’s founder stated in 2019, that “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.”
Images of festival fields strewn with waste, gladly seem to demonstrate far less debris than those of prior decades. Last year’s litter picking manager, Bronwen Rashad, reported there was “hardly any rubbish” on the ground compared to ten to twenty years ago. She said: “There’s been a huge change in the public behaviour and they do mostly use the bins provided”, also noting, “If you came tomorrow it would start to look like a farm again.”
The engagement with Glastonbury Festival goers and onus on their own actions has become much more prominent since 2016, when all ticket holders had to sign up to a pledge before being able to purchase a ticket. The ‘Love the Farm, Leave No Trace’ pledge encourages people abandon throwaway culture, use the facilities provided and take their litter home. Behaviour on the ground, seems to be changing as a result.
Behavioural change science
With an event so huge, simply reacting to negative waste behaviours would not be suffice and behaviour change science is key to making a lasting impact and preventing waste generation in the first instance.
A report on behavioural change regarding festival waste, details the ‘Worthy Warriors’ initiative, whereby regular festival attendees rather than staff, hand out recycling bags and encourage good practice in campsites. This scheme isn’t about following rules but works by engaging peers to influence their peers.
Successful behaviour change means understanding barriers and motivations at each stage of the action: What makes the behaviour easier? What makes it more appealing? At Glastonbury, time and thought has made bins easy to use, attractive to interact with, socially supported by peers and recycling centre volunteers, and timely at the point of need. This mirrors the EAST behavioural framework described by behavioural change expert, Livvy Drake.
Public buy-in is further supported by visible streaming systems, positive reinforcement and the integration of sustainability into every single part of the Glastonbury experience. Festival founder, Michael Eavis, who set up the event on his family’s working farm, explains that while the festival was born “long before people began to become concerned about climate change, even then, all the milk, the cider and the straw came from the farm. We were green then and we are just as green now.” Now, in 2025, from banning plastic bottles to encouraging reuse, Glastonbury makes sustainable behaviour feel both normal and expected.
Ultimately, Glastonbury’s food waste story is not just about the amount captured or composted, but rather, what’s possible when the right infrastructure meets genuine cultural change. From peer-to-peer influence to colour-coded bins, the festival shows that composting can work even in the most chaotic environments. Scaling that success into our everyday lives, through better awareness, better access and better-designed systems, is the next step in reducing food waste and its carbon cost.
You can find out more about upcoming Simpler Recycling legislation for separating food waste and about secure, hygienic food waste enclosures here.
