Summer festivalgoers have left our fields in disarray – it’s time to tax the vandals hard

UK festivals are producing 23,500 tons of waste every year, but why can’t attendees respect their environment like walkers do?

Clean Up Britain is calling for a tent tax of £25 on every festival ticket (PA)

Greta Thunberg has arrived in New York by boat to attend next month’s UN conference on climate change at a time when 85 per cent of the UK’s population say the issue concerns them.

In some quarters, the message doesn’t seem to be getting through, quite the reverse – after more than 100,000 music fans attended festivals at Reading and Leeds recently, organisers were forced to clean up hundreds of abandoned tents.

Cans, food wrappers, plastic bottles, sleeping bags and tents were strewn around as if there had been a disaster, not a celebration.