One of the United Kingdom's biggest music events, Glastonbury Festival, has announced that single-use plastic drink bottles will not be available in its 2019 edition, set for June 26-30.
The plastic bottle ban is also extended to festival's backstage, production, catering and dressing room areas, the organizers announced Feb. 27.
Visitors will still be allowed to bring plastic bottles on to the site, but Glastonbury has strongly encouraged “everyone to join the effort by bringing as little single-use plastic as possible.”
“Our partners Greenpeace estimate that, globally, up to 12.7 million [metric tons] of plastic end up in our oceans each year. Greenpeace advise that by far the best way to avoid plastic pollution is to reduce plastic usage,” Glastonbury said in a statement.
“With more than 1 million plastic bottles sold at Glastonbury 2017, we feel that stopping their sale is the only way forward,” it added.
The organizers have also urged all festival-goers to use a reusable water bottle and refill it at any of the hundreds of free water taps and WaterAid kiosks around the Glastonbury site.
Free drinking water will be available from all bars across the site.
Meanwhile, canned soft drinks and canned Life Water will be available to purchase from all traders.
“I'm thrilled that, together, we'll be able to prevent over a million single-use plastic bottles from being used at this year's festival,” Emily Eavis, a co-organizer for Glastonbury, said.
