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Reversing the ‘Bring it and bin it’ culture at the Roskilde Festival

Ben Hamilton
July 4th, 2017


This article is more than 7 years old.

For just 100 kroner guests can have their camping gear delivered to their doorstep, but it’s catching on slowly

And don’t forget those fold-up chairs and all the stuff that sank into the mud (photo: photo Allan Kortbaek / Mutuk5)

History is littered with classic cases of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Jeffrey Dahmer becoming a Christian three years before his final meal on Death Row – human flesh was off the menu this time – is a good one.

As messy as a stable floor
And now you can add the new Roskilde Festival initiative ‘Bring It Home’ to the list, which enables guests to pay 100 kroner for all their gear to be delivered to their homes, instead of dumped at the site.

While the festival organisers are hopeful it will catch on, 2,400 tonnes of tents, mats, damp clothes and other apparently disposable possessions have been left behind and will now be incinerated.

Not exactly bolting to use it
Still, Hans Jessen, the festival’s waste disposal team leader, has said the initiative is a success – but only among the older attendees.

“This year, the campaign has worked really well for the slightly older participants, but the youngsters have not been caught by the trend of taking their stuff home,” he told DR.

“There will always need to be a clean-up when you’ve had 100,000 people at a garden party, but compared to the size we have today, we will have far less waste volumes 10 years from now.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”