We work very closely with Julie’s Bicycle, a not-for-profit organisation working on sustainability within the creative industries, as part of their Industry Green certification. In 2017 we achieved an incredible 4/ 5 stars, thank you to everyone for participating! Read the full report here.

We are also proud to be one of the 70 Vision Festival’s committed to reducing our carbon emissions, read more here about the Vision Festival: 2025 pledge.

Travelling to the festival makes up 80% of the total carbon emissions generated. You could travel by public transport or car share to help reduce this.

Read the latest full report here.

Carbon Balancing with Energy Revolution

The main contributor of carbon emissions at festivals is travel, which accounts for 70% of a festival’s carbon footprint. That is why at Reading Festival we are introducing carbon offsetting to our car and motorcycle parking prices. £1 of the cost of your parking pass will be donated to the charity Energy Revolution, who invest in renewable energy projects.

If you have a spare seat in your car or need a lift home why not car share? Car sharing will not only help you save money by sharing the costs but it will also reduce the amount of traffic on the roads, helping the environment. Last year the number of passengers who used our car sharing service tripled, so keep it up.

We recycled an incredible 68% of our waste in 2017, so thank you for everyone who used the recycling points in the campsites and the three bin system in the Main Arena.

THREE BIN SYSTEM

We run a three-bin system at the festival, which means every bin station in the campsite and main arena will be formed by 3 bins:

COMPOST – When you buy food from the traders, everything your food comes in is compostable so plates, cutlery and napkins can be placed in the compost bins along with the food scraps.  Please make sure NO PLASTIC goes into the compost.

RECYCLE – Plastic bottles, aluminium cans, newspapers, magazines and clean and dry cardboard (no used greasy pizza boxes as these do not recycle).

GENERAL WASTE – There should be minimal left over that goes into General Waste.

FESTIVAL GREEN MACHINE

Green Machine’s ethos is simple, “To contribute to sustainability and minimize landfill at all events whilst giving accessibility and equality to disabled and disadvantaged people”. Green Machine provide us with hard working and fun volunteers who support our sustainability team in reducing waste and spreading the message to the public about recycling at our music festivals.

BIN YOUR BUTTS

Every butt has to be picked up by hand, so it would be awesome if you did not flick your cigarette and put it out before you bin it.

Tap water is free. Please feel free to refill your bottles at the taps provided.

When packing ready for the festival weekend, remember to pack wisely and only bring essential items, please do not bring any single use plastic (plastic bottles are allowed).

If you do bring your own tent we ask you to please take it, along with any other camping equipment home with you. If you leave it in the field it will most likely end up in landfill or incineration.

If you have any broken or unwanted tents chairs, gazebos, empty batteries, unopened tins of food after the festival, please take them to the Nifty Recycling Points.

If you want to donate your tent to charity, take it to your local charity shop. Please don’t leave it in the field.

We put together a salvage operation after the festival for organisations to collect some of the perfectly reusable camping equipment that is left behind therefore reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill or incineration.

Please check back here for salvage applications for 2019.

Energy generation is one of the biggest sources of carbon dioxide emissions globally and in the UK.

All of our tower and festoon lights are 100% LED. LED lights are 95% more environmentally friendly than fluorescent and incandescent lights.

Last year Reading festival used two hybrid generators to power the White Campsite. These use renewable energy from the sun to charge up batteries to power the areas more efficiently.