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 a fantastic 4 / 5 stars, thank you to everyone for participating!  You can 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 (source: The Show Must Go On Report, 2015). You could travel by public transport or carshare to help reduce this.

See the latest report here.

BIG GREEN COACH

We have partnered with Big Green Coach to provide coach travel to the festival and have some exciting incentives for coach travellers.

For every customer who books travel with Big Green Coach, they sponsor and protect 5 square foot of Amazonian Rainforest for 10 years. 1 million square foot has been saved already.  Check out their website for more info – Big Green Coach.

CAR SHARE

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.

Our car sharing partner is Liftshare – visit LEEDS LIFTSHARE to find drivers offering spaces in their car or festival goers who need a lift.

We have exciting news – the first 100 people that sign up to Liftshare can upgrade their Car Park Pass to a Priority Car Park Pass. This means that not only will you have priority parking but you can cruise up close to the main entrance for speedy access. visit LEEDS LIFTSHARE to sign up!

Liftshare have been awarded the TrustSeal, which confirms they run on good practice principles with clear safety guidelines and take appropriate steps to verify the identity of their users. For more info on safety click here.

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

All of our tower and festoon lights is 100% LED. LED lights are 95% more environmental friendly than fluorescent and incandescent lights. 95% of the energy in LEDs is converted into light and only 5% is wasted as heat, however fluorescent lights convert 95% of energy to heat and only 5% into light.

WASTE STRATEGY

This year we’re aiming for 30% of total waste to be sent to recycling and your role is key to help us achieve this by checking which bin to put your waste in and using the NiftyBin recycling points in the campsites.

ZERO WASTE CAMPSITES

You can be a recycling champion in your camp!

When your bags are full bring them to the NiftyBin Recycling Points for your chance to win 2 x free tickets for next year, merch, or Co-op vouchers to use at home!  A member of the F.B.I (Festival Bin Inspectors) can help you separate them out into all the different materials to learn about Zero Waste philosophy.

Gold: A chance to win 2 x festival tickets next year – For all the recycling champions out there!  Bring back your green bag of mixed recyclables and clear bags to sort into the different NiftyBins. Take Lids off bottles, empty all liquids and remove soft plastics to become a real gold recycler.

Silver: A chance to win a merch bundle – bring back your full green and clear bag to sort at the NiftyBins.

Bronze: A chance to win Co op tokens to use off site– bring back any bag (you could reuse your shopping bags), unwanted camping equipment or food to the recycling points.

Our dedicated FBI agents (festival bin inspectors) will be chatting with everyone in the campsites about our recycling initiatives so look out for them and say hey.

Green bag – Paper, card, cans, food tins, tetra packs, cartons, plastic bottles, general plastic containers, newspapers, cardboard, beer cases.

Clear bag – crisp packets, plastic bags, straws, wet wipes and other bits of soft plastics.

We have joined forces with the Greenpeace events team again this summer to help festival-goers stem the tide of plastic pollution which is one of the greatest threats to our oceans. All plastic bottles and cups bought at Leeds will have a 10p refundable deposit.

Smirnoff red cups are also included as part of the cup return scheme.

10 x cups and bottles = £1

1 x full recycling bag of bottles = £5.

Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters the oceans every year. That’s a truck load of rubbish every minute, which will take centuries to degrade and be impossible to fully clean up. To reduce plastic pollution, Greenpeace is working towards the elimination of single-use plastic packaging in the UK, and has been campaigning for the government to introduce a UK-wide deposit return scheme for all drinks containers.

Last year you returned an awesome 225,000  plastic bottles and cups at Leeds and hundreds of you signed signed the Greenpeace petition, now signed by around 337,000 members of the public who back a deposit return scheme. The petition was handed as a ‘message in a bottle’ to environment secretary Michael Gove in advance of his announcement that the government will roll out a deposit return scheme after a consultation – Result!

Ever wondered what happened to them?  Have a look here.

VOLUNTEER WITH GREENPEACE

If you want to be part of the DRS Crew you can apply here.

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

TENTS AND CAMPING EQUIPMENT

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 your 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.

If you really, really don’t want your tent, please pack it up and hand it into the Recycling Points in the campsites. Donated gear will make its way to charitable and community organisations.

SALVAGE

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.

This is an opportunity for charities and community groups to come to the festival site on the Monday and Tuesday after the show and help save what they can.  Email [email protected] for more information, quoting Download Salvage in the subject line.

Email [email protected]

Once again, Greenpeace will be running the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) for cups and bottles at Leeds Festival. They are looking for some keen, engaged and enthusiastic volunteers to join them. If you are interested please click here for more information and to access the application form.

When you arrive you will be given a clear plastic bag for recycling to help keep your campsite clean. When you’ve filled up your bags, bring them to the Recycling Points in the campgrounds and hand them in. You can get more recycling bags from here.

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.

WASTE STRATEGY

Our dedicated FBI agents (festival bin inspectors) will be engaging with everyone in the campsites about our recycling initiatives so look out for them and say hey.

This year we’re aiming for 30% of total waste to be sent to recycling and your role is key to help us achieve this by checking which bin to put your waste in and using the NiftyBin recycling points in the campsites.

ZERO WASTE CAMPSITES

You can be a recycling champion in your camp! When you get to the festival you will be given a free recycling bag, in this bag please put;

Paper, card, cans, food tins, tetra packs, cartons, plastic bottles, general plastic containers, newspapers, cardboard, beer cases

For general rubbish use your shopping bags, crisp packets plastic bags, straws, wet wipes, scrappy bits of plastic and all other rubbish. Try and minimise this as it goes to landfill or energy from waste.

When your bags are full bring them to the NiftyBin Recycling Points for your chance to win some groovy green prizes!  A member of the F.B.I (Festival Bin Inspectors) can help you separate them out into all the different materials to learn about Zero Waste philosophy.

Gold– chance to win 2 x festival tickets next year – For all the recycling champions out there!  Bring back your clear bag of recyclables and a bag of non-recyclables to sort into the different NiftyBins.

Silver– Reading merch bundle – bring back a bag of mixed recyclables and sort at the NiftyBins and a bag of non-recyclables

Bronze – Co op tokens to use off site – bring back any bag or any unwanted camping equipment / food to the recycling points

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.

If you’re packing ready for the festival weekend remember to pack wisely and only bring essential items. We ask you to please take all your camping gear home with you – it means you don’t have to buy it again next time you come! We can only salvage so many tents after the festival, and the majority of left tents end up in landfill, which is really harmful for the environment. Take a look at the Love Your Tent film and remember to #justtakeithome.

AFFORDABLE TENT HIRE

If you want to hire a tent rather than bring your own, Kip and Go offer affordable pre pitched tents.

TENTS AND CAMPING EQUIPMENT

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 your 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.

If you really, really don’t want your tent, please pack it up and hand it into the Recycling Points in the campsites. Donated gear will make its way to charitable and community organisations.

If you have any unwanted non-perishable food left over then please leave it at the Recycling Point.