Glastonbury Festival is on currently, which means that if previous years are anything to go by, come Monday our newspapers and social media platforms will be festooned with images of piles of rubbish and abandoned tents strewn across the fields. An ex-colleague told me that when attending another well-known festival which involved the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol, he and his group of friends would take a spare tent in which they would all urinate – with the occasional ‘accident’ - rather than queue for the loos. They’d leave it behind for the unwary volunteers to discover. He thought it was funny… 

  

As some 250,000 tents go to landfill each Summer in the UK alone, I doubt all of these will have been used as ‘loo tents’, so it’s simply a case of festival-goers not being bothered to pack them up and lug them home. I accept that some tents may have broken beyond repair, but what’s to prevent the owners from taking them to a bin area, rather than leave them for someone else to dismantle and bin? This year though, things may be different… 

  

I was delighted to learn that a sports equipment manufacturer called Decathlon has launched the ‘No tent left behind’ tent buy back scheme. Customers have until 13th September to return their eligible tents to Decathlon stores for trade-in. They’ll receive a gift card worth the full amount they spent on the tent, regardless of wear and tear – as long as it’s all there and hasn’t been damaged, stained or contaminated in any way (Loo tents not eligible then!). The tents will be refurbished, cleaned and resold via Decathlon's 'Second Life' resale platform. What a fabulous idea! 

  

And as Decathalon has 2080 stores in 56 countries, I’m hoping that this isn’t just a UK initiative but one which stretches across the globe... 

  

As well as the difference this scheme could make to our environment such as demand on landfill, it comes with other bonuses, freeing up storage space at home for example and allowing participants to camp in a new tent each year. It’s ideal too for growing families! Anyone who’s missed the dates for ‘No tent left behind’, or has bought a tent from a different range than that advertised in the scheme, can still sell back their tent and other old equipment, through Decathalon’s Buy Back scheme. What’s not to like about this initiative? Looking at the company’s website blurb, it’s committed to helping give everyone, everywhere, access to sport and the outdoors, while helping save the planet, making sports jackets out of old plastic bottles and repairing broken bikes for example. Brilliant!