Glastonbury fans desert festival site leaving hundreds of plastic bottles and rubbish despite eco-warrior plastic ban

GLASTONBURY Festival-goers left the site littered with thousands of plastic bottles despite this year's eco drive.

Climate change and the environment was the theme of the festival, which banned single-use plastic bottles and provided water in cans or at refill sites.

But as the 200,000 people leave the site, plastic bottles and other debris have been left scattered over the fields as workers start the clean up process.

It comes after Sir David Attenborough made a surprise appearance on the Pyramid Stage yesterday.

He thanked the festival for going "plastic free" as he introduced his new BBC documentary One Planet, Seven Worlds.

He told the crowd: "There was one sequence in Blue Planet II which everyone seems to remember.

"It had an extraordinary effect and now this great festival has gone plastic-free.

"That is more than a million bottles of water have not been drunk by you in plastic. Thank you."

Organisers had 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: "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.

This weekend saw scorching temperatures hit Glastonbury as the UK baked in a heatwave.

Festival-goers complained of waiting an hour to refill their water bottles and having the showers turned off on the hottest day of the year as temperatures reach 31C.

Paramedics from South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust said they had treated 70 people suffering from heat-related illnesses over the weekend with most suffering from heat stroke.

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