ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Glastonbury Festival lasts for just five days - but the cleaning operation following this year's event is expected to last for up to six weeks.

As the last revellers left at the end of the annual event, cleaning crews moved in to clear the 1,200 acre site which was left carpeted in rubbish.

Also left behind by the 175,000 festival-goers this June were around 500 sleeping bags, 5,500 tents and 3,500 airbeds. Other abandoned items included an estimated 2,200 chairs, 950 rolled mats and 400 gazebos.

Workers will carry out a fingertip search to ensure that no part of the land goes unchecked, while tractors carrying magnetic strips will travel across the fields to remove any remaining tent pegs. This is crucial since cows grazing on the site have died in previous years after eating abandoned tent pegs.

The total quantity of waste is expected to exceed 1,650 tonnes and a crew of around 800 cleaners will spend around six weeks litter-picking. The bill for cleaning up rubbish from the site is likely to be around £780,000.

Glastonbury Festival, organised by Worthy Farm owner Michael Eavis, has been a British summer tradition since 1970. Efforts are being made to increase the amount of rubbish that can be recycled after the festival. Around 49 per cent of all the waste was recycled last year, but organisers this year are aiming to increase that figure to 60 per cent.

When the clean-up operation is complete, the fields will be used for grazing dairy cows until next year's event.