NETWORK Recycling has been working with Bestival to keep the festival environmentally sustainable and reduce the waste sent to landfill.
Bins were placed around the site for Bestivalgoers to use for plastic, glass, cans and other waste. Behind the scenes, traders and bars had been given separate containers for card, plastic film and glass, as well as the green bag system used by campers.
Battery boxes were placed on stage, to recycle the batteries from changing headsets and sound equipment. These will be taken to Commercial Recycling, in Somerset.
At the end of the festival, Network gathered all the mixed recycling into their on-site yard and then the fun began, with a team splitting bags and taking out the contamination.
Cans have been taken to Haylands Farm, Ryde — a charity working with young people with learning disabilities, to be sorted into aluminium and steel. Haylands receives money to fund projects from the materials.
Plastic bottles and film and wood went to another great Island resource — North Fairlee Farm, near Newport. The plastic will then be compacted and exported to the mainland, the wood is chipped into pellets and shipped to the mainland for fuel.
Island Waste took away the cardboard, en route to a processing plant on the mainland. Scrap metal — including broken camping chairs — has been sent to Clifton Grade, at Cowes. Glass was collected by R.J. Harris, near Portsmouth, and sent for processing into new glass bottles and jars.
l Each year used cooking oil, approximately 1,000 litres, has been collected by Wight Made Bio-Diesel and turned into fuel to power the following year's festival generators.