Glastonbury 2019: Festival clean-up under way Published duration 1 July 2019 Related Topics Glastonbury Festival

media caption The litter pickers are out in force to clear up Worthy Farm after the festival

Glastonbury Festival is over for another year, with the clean-up operation getting under way.

Climate change and the environment was the theme of this year's festival, which banned the sale of single-use plastic bottles.

On Sunday Sir David Attenborough took to the Pyramid Stage to praise festival-goers for using less plastic.

But photographs of the clear-up show thousands of discarded bottles and other items of waste.

Co-founder Emily Eavis said the "most eye-opening part of the weekend for me was not seeing any plastic bottles in the bins or on the ground".

media caption This video has been removed for rights reasons

Urging people not to leave tents on the site, Ms Eavis added: "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."

The on-site recycling team confirmed this saying it has seen "a massive reduction in the amount of plastic on the site this year - the least ever seen, by a distance".

Photos of the aftermath look to contradict this claim, however, with some revellers reported as saying that "disgusting" amounts of rubbish were piling up at the festival, shaming fellow attendees.

The festival team pointed out there was never a ban on the public bringing their own plastic bottles on site and said all plastic and cans will be recycled at the on-site recycling centre.

"We feel that the public very much bought into our campaign to reduce, reuse and recycle and we're very pleased with the results," a spokesperson said.

To huge cheers, Sir David hailed festival-goers for cutting plastic use, saying: "That is more than a million bottles of water that have not been drunk by you. Thank you. Thank you."

image copyright PA Media image caption Discarded plastic bottles have been left behind by festival-goers

image caption A flock of seagulls made an appearance at the Pyramid Stage

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.

About 40% of festival-goers travel to Glastonbury using public transport.

image caption Jason is not part of the official team of volunteers but said he wanted to "do his bit"

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