Hazardous waste is a big issue for festivals, as it needs special management during transport and disposal. However, not all the hazardous waste going in and out of Roskilde Festival has been identified or quantified. This hazardous waste can come either from the shops, which regularly need to dispose of their waste along the festival, or from the campers’ leftovers after the festival. The main hazardous items – such as car batteries and PVC-containing air mattresses, are picked up by volunteers at the end of the festival.
During the festival various shops in the festival area were surveyed. The aim of the survey was to get an overview of what kind of hazardous waste shops generate during the festival and how they proceed with it. Furthermore, sampling was performed in the three main waste collection points of the festival.
The survey of the shops showed that these generally generate not much hazardous waste and if they generate hazardous waste, they mostly handle it by themselves. However, a general lack of information regarding the handling of waste between the shops and Roskilde Festival was discovered. A lot of shops did not even know, that they can ask the Roskilde Festival waste management to handle their hazardous waste.