Background
Year on year Pinkpop noticed the following problem: the huge pile of waste remaining on the campsite of a festival. Not only a lot of extra waste, but also hardly separated and therefore not recyclable (Pinkpop Netherlands, 2015).
“The problem is that the site is a large debris field after a festival. Everything remains behind. Anyone who sees hates it, but nobody does anything about it. “(Janssen, 2016).
Why does this study specifically focus on the campsite, instead of the festival or festival as a whole? First of all, ID&T has taken as a leader and role model in the event industry various initiatives in the field of sustainability at their events. This has put great strides when it comes to the festival landscape as a whole (Stutterheim, 2014). There is, however, still a challenge in waste reduction and separation, especially on festival campgrounds. An important difference of the waste at a festival site and the festival campsite is to be found in the nature of the material. Organizers can influence (mostly) the nature of the material at a festival as most of it is facilitated by the festival organization, such as issuing recyclable plastic cups in bars. Although certain materials such as glass are not allowed on the festival site, the campsite is a big dump of unsorted, non-recyclable waste. The complexity of the problem of waste at a festival campsite is added to the fact that to date there has been gathered little knowledge about this issue, highlighting the relevance of this research report.
Regardless of the previous attempts at stimulation of visitors to separate waste and attempts on camping equipment not to be left behind as waste, there is little to no effect. This appeared amongst figures from Solar Weekend Festival, where despite the campaign “Stash Your Trash” only 4 percent of the trash bags handed to the public where turned in. (Naudts, Digits Solar, 2014). These results led Pinkpop to the question: why visitors leave their belongings behind at a festival campsite, why have the taken initiatives do not have the desired effect and what can we do to address this waste problem?
Problem analysis
Based on the background and reasons will be discussed in the problem on the management problem. The analysis ultimately leads to a specific research problem, translated to the main question of the study.
Current Situation
The waste problem arose when the site became part of the festival and is revealed by the increase in (residential) festivals with camping. In addition, the festival campgrounds have increased in size (the Haterd, 2013). Almost have to do all the festivals with a camping with the waste problem. Both at national and international festivals allow many visitors to festival campgrounds after litter. For this reason, many initiatives have already been taken to combat the problem of waste in the Netherlands, but also England, Scandinavia, Germany and Belgium. Examples of these initiatives include “Love Your Tent ‘and’ One Nights Tent ‘. The initiatives have so far not led to (long-term) success (Schurink, Problem, 2014). The effect of initiatives highlighted in section 4.2.
Although the regulation has been tightened over the years, the waste problem is not reduced festival campgrounds. This has, in addition to allow the growth of festival camp sites, with the fact that materials such as camping tents have become increasingly cheaper. The cause is also to determine the values of the site visitors. The norm for camping
keep clean is broken, making the ‘normal’ is to put stuff behind (van de Voort, Problem, 2014). Finally, the weather conditions and duration of the festival of a major influence on the residual waste. The longer people stay on the site, the more things are taken, and the more is left there. In doing so bad weather sure (yet) remains more waste at the camping site and the number of remaining tents can even quadruple (Naudts, Digits Solar, 2014).
Relevance
As previously mentioned the events industry is a major player in the current economy. In the Netherlands, every year hundreds of festivals, possibly several days, said festival campgrounds to play an increasingly important role. By addressing sustainability festival campgrounds could reduce the pressure on environmental pollution and reducing the environmental footprint. In addition, visitors and other organizers can be inspired, by showing them a good example, which can lead to the transformation of behavioural intentions into effective action. Moreover, to achieve there is benefit by focusing on sustainability. A clean area contributes to a positive festival experience, leads to a better image and may present a festival organizational advantage in obtaining permits. In addition to achieving these advantages benefit nancial area. So can provide to tackle the waste issue festival campgrounds advantage in obtaining grants and can financially benefit gained by reducing the waste and waste. The costs for the
processing of separated waste be lower than that of residual waste. Finally, there needs to a cleaner site after less (machine) clean-up operations and can save costs here (Stimular, 2014).
The knowledge problem
On the basis of the problem can be a translation to be made to the research problem. In order finally to be able to get specific recommendations focused on what can contribute a festival organization to bring about behavioural change and tackle the waste problem, looked at the underlying cause of the problem. First comes the problem shows that there are already several initiatives have been taken to address the waste problem, which have produced so far little or no result. It can be concluded that there is a gap between the festival organizers and visitors of the festival site. It is, so as to respond to festival organizers on the theme of waste, require collaboration with multiple actors. An important factor in this group is the site visitor. For bridging the gap and bringing about cooperation, it is therefore important first to explain the current behaviour of the site visitor. By examining how the site visitor behaviour comes about, therefore, a picture of the current situation. Finally, by examining the problems relating to the display of the desired behaviour and find out what influences this behaviour is subject, insight into how a festival organization can contribute to change this behaviour. The underlying theories for explaining this behaviour are set put in Chapter 2.
Problem and objective
On the basis of the problem formulated the following research question: “What is the current behaviour of site visitors regarding the residual household waste and camping equipment on festival campgrounds, how to explain this behaviour, and what obstacles does this hang together?”