Festival eco-MoneySaving – How I saved on my ticket by picking up other people's discarded cups

How you can earn £2ish per cup you save from landfill

Reusable plastic cups have been gradually replacing the flimsy single-use cups that once littered the fields at all UK festivals. You’ll usually be asked to pay a deposit (at Download it was £2) and after each drink you can either exchange your cup for a new clean one or get your £2 back. With pints of beer priced at £5-£6, I was going to bankrupt myself pretty quickly. But, never being averse to picking up money off the floor, when I spied a dropped cup it was the same to me as a £2 coin, so I picked it up...

I found a stack of plastic cups dropped on the way out on Download day one, as well as a couple here and there in the arena, partially muddy and clearly no longer in use – so I decided to do my bit to help save them from landfill. By returning them all, not missing any bands I wanted to see, I got £12 back. Ok, maybe a small dent in the £226 the ticket cost, but I did treat myself to a couple of beers with the proceeds. If I'd been hungry, I could've got a meal for £9 plus a cheeky half-pint for £3 at Download prices. Not bad, eh?

If you don’t pick the cups up and they get broken they can’t be reused. So pick ‘em up and you’ll become an eco-hero, if not a millionaire. We asked MoneySavers on Twitter whether they'd collected cups at festivals or events, and many had - including John, who told us he's saved £100s over the years:

And it isn’t just at festivals you can do this. Some companies like Green Goblet and Ecocup supply other events and locations, like football and rugby clubs, cricket grounds etc – so look out for discarded cups wherever you are. MSE Katie rescued an impressive 28 cups at the rugby and got £1 back for each:

MSE Katie

Plus three bonus eco-MoneySaving festival tips...

2. Greenpeace recycling – 10p back per bottle or paper cup

Some festivals - including Download, Community, Wireless, Latitude, Reading and Leeds - will also have collection points run by Greenpeace that let you exchange 10 paper cups or 10 plastic bottles for £1, but they won’t take them if they’re muddy or broken. So if the weather’s bad you may have to go around asking people for their cups before they drop them – a bit embarrassing? Maybe. I did see a few brave souls doing this at #Brownload (Download was very muddy), so it’s definitely possible!

Way back in 2006 (the scheme was slightly different, then) I remember it being particularly dry and sunny at Download, and many a chap could be seen with a stack of cups taller than a totem pole – so while it might take longer to get money back this way, and you risk missing some of the action while cup-hunting, it’s a good option if you’re skint. You’ll also be able to bask in the warm glow of knowing that everything you’ve handed in will be recycled and won’t end up in landfill, ahh.

Download Festival also had a Co-op on site in the camping area, where you can return plastic bottles purchased there using a reversible vending machine to get vouchers for 10p back per bottle. See Download’s blog on reducing single-use plastics for more info – it’s most likely to be back again next year.

What are your top eco-friendly festival MoneySaving tips? Are you going to any festivals this year? Let us know in the comments below, on Twitter or Facebook.