Eco plays starring role at 2007 Glastonbury Festival  (posted 14/06/2007)

A DORSET organics recycling company will be joining the likes of The Arctic Monkeys and legendary supergroup The Who in playing a starring role at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Eco Composting (Eco) has been contracted to handle all the food waste from the three-day event billed as the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world.

Up to 100 tonnes of food waste from the 900-acre festival ground in Somerset is expected to be taken to Eco’s Parley site in neighbouring Dorset.

There it will be treated under EU Category 3 standards and heated to 70 degrees Celsius before being allowed to rest for up to four months.

After screening for plastics and other materials the material will be used by Eco as compost for growing turf.

Andy Hill, Eco’s Sales and Marketing Director, said the Glastonbury contract could potentially ‘open the floodgates’ to deals with other festival organisers.

“The Eco facility is one of only a few in the country able to treat food waste under EU Category 3 standards. We have high hopes for this side of the business,” he added.

ENDS

Picture caption: Andy Hill, Eco's Sales & marketing Director

FACTFILE: Glastonbury 2007, June 22 to 24

• World’s biggest greenfield music and performing arts festival
• 2007 headline acts include The Who, Dame Shirley Bassey, Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys
• Six main stages
• 900 acre festival site in the Vale of Avalon, 8.5 mile perimeter fence
• 145,000 tickets sold out within 1 hr 45 mins of going on sale in April
• First Glastonbury Festival held in September 1970. 1,500 people attended. Acts included Marc Bolan and Al Stewart.
• Last festival held in 2005 was hit by the equivalent of two months of rain fall in just several hours. 50 per cent of festival waste was recycled.

Editor’s Note: Founded in 1994, Eco Composting is one of the UK’s leading organics recycling firms, annually processing 120,000 tonnes of material on its 14-acre site at Parley, Dorset. End products include turf, enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip. Eco employs 23 staff and recorded a £3.5m turnover in the year to December 31, 2006.

For more information please contact Andy Hill, Sales and Marketing Director, Eco Composting, on 01202 593601 or Andrew Diprose, PR Account Director, Deep South Media on 01202 534487.