Brought to you in association with Expert Laois
There was shock and outrage when a video was released on Tuesday of bulldozers attempting to clean up a campsite following the Electric Picnic music festival.
Tents, sleeping bags and general rubbish lay strewn across the ground and workers were piling it up before taking it away after campers had simply discarded their items before leaving.
However, in one campsite, the Eco Campsite, the some 2,000 campers left the place the exact way they found it – spotless.
Eileen Dunphy, who is one of the people behind the BYEco & NiftyBin campsite, told LaoisToday how the revellers that inhabited it for the weekend made the effort to keep things tidy.
She said: “We began at Electric Picnic five years ago and had 700 campers staying with us at first.
“We were originally on the site where the Gaeltacht campsite was this year but we were moved to a new area behind the Rave in the Woods.
“There were 700 two-year old oak trees there and the area was just beautiful.”
Eileen explained how nine stations of NiftyBins were set up around the campsite.
She said: “There were nine different areas where people could dispose of whatever they wanted.
“We have hard plastic, soft plastic, food and metal bins. We also have ash trays and gum deposit boxes so everything is kept tidy.”
In order to get into this campsite, you have to apply online – but Eileen says that places are usually snapped up in minutes.
She said: “The link goes up on the Electric Picnic website where you can apply a couple of months before it all starts.
“But it generally gets booked up within ten minutes so you have to be quick.”
On the issue of waste around the Electric Picnic itself, Eileen said that NiftyBins had some stations around and all of those were full.
She said: “Where we had stations near the Main Arena for example, people certainly availed of them.
“So I think that shows that if people can clearly see places where they can recycle, they will try to use them.”
The video below show the strict clean up after yourself policy all weekend – and how it works.
The place was green and clean all weekend. Monday morning shows a spotless environment, where everything has been left as it was found.
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