Decathlon have launched their festival buy-back scheme, No Tents Left Behind, to stop the environmental damage created by people discarding their festival homes
Decathlon has launched a new scheme to cut down on camping waste.
It’s the start of the summer festival season which will see millions of people descend on fields across the country for music, drinks and dancing. But these sites are often left littered with tents, with around 250,000 dumped in the UK each year and ending up in landfill.
That’s why Decathlon have launched their festival buy-back scheme, No Tents Left Behind, to stop the environmental damage created by people discarding their festival homes. From now until 13 September, festival goers can buy the camping gear from Decathlon and return them after using them for a full refund.
Customers will receive a gift card to spend in the store. The tents will then be cleaned, refurbished and resold as part of Decathlon’s Second Life programme. The company claims this will extend the lifespan of the tents while reducing single use consumption.
The campaign is backed by broadcaster Jo Whiley, who will be covering Glastonbury for the BBC. She said: “Decathlon’s ‘No Tent Left Behind’ campaign is a great reminder to festival goers to make sure they enjoy their experience, but in a sustainable way. By doing this you can even make money to shop for your next adventure!”
Chris Allen, sustainability leader at Decathlon UK, said: “100% of the tents returned in 2023 were refurbished and resold through Decathlon’s Secondlife scheme. We want to make an even bigger impact and encourage our customers to choose sustainable habits whilst they’re enjoying themselves.
“We continue our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and hope our customers will be inspired to do the same.”
Ten different models of tents will be available as part of the Tent Pledge.
This scheme has been announced just weeks before Glastonbury, where 200,000 will watch headliners Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA.
Reducing the number of tents discarded at festivals is important as plastic pollution takes hundreds of years to break down, according to one study.
In 2022, more than 99% of tents were taken home from Glastonbury, leaving under a thousand needing to be thrown away, the Mirror reported at the time.
Despite this, around 2,000 tonnes of waste – close to 10kg per person – are littered around the festival each year. Single-use plastic has been eliminated from some festivals to limit plastic use and protect the environment, with the members of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) banning plastic straws in 2018.
The AIF launched their Take Your Tent Home campaign in 2019 and said that the average tent weighs 3.5kg and is made mostly of plastic, with a tent being equivalent to 8,750 plastic straws or 250 pint cups. ( )
In 2018, almost 10% of festival goers dumped their tent. The start-up EnviroTent offers an alternative solution – cardboard tents. Their tents, which were first created as a school project in 2019, are recyclable and biodegradable, CNN reported.
And in Headlingley, a sustainable fashion store has transformed tents abandoned at Leeds Festival into clothing, according to the BBC.
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