Cardboard tents | Hacker News Reader

Cardboard tents

cnn.com

8 pointsKaibeezy7 comments

Typically when I attend an outdoor events trying to go green, they'll replace something that's normally single-use with something reusable, like renting metal cutlery instead of using plastic. This feels weird. That said, I can't tell you how many times I've seen that reusable cutlery end up in the garbage because people can't be bothered.

No amount of greenwashing is going to solve the real problem, which is that too many people just don't care. The greenest solution was probably not to attend the festival to begin with; the second greenest solution was to attend but actually give a shit about the impact of your decisions.

> because people can't be bothered

WTF? People just leave their shit on the ground leaving a festival?!

What you mean is "too many brits just don't care".

It's definetely NOT like this in the US. Yes, some thoughtless people do leave some shit behind, but nothing like 100K tents.

I've been to my share of festivals, what I mostly see left on the ground is small trash (equally unacceptable, but on a much smaller scale than this is reporting).

I've seen this in other places in Europe. So incase this becomes territorial and my viewpoint needs to be discounted - I'm from the UK, but I've only been to festivals in continental Europe, primarily Czechia & Slovakia.

The huge overlap I see with the UK, that the US appears to be missing, is that there's surprisingly few other places to use tents. In most of the UK (ex. Scotland), wild camping is actually illegal. In central europe, camping appears to be surprisingly rare. They have astounding hiking routes, but with amenities provided/expected and just setting up camp is frowned upon.

So we have these super-cheap "pop-up" tents that don't survive much usage at all, and are likely only fit to be abandoned after a few days. Relatively expensive tents for weirdos like me that'll actually appreciate them. And almost zero market for anything in between.

So the markets are roughly €20-40 for a tent that'll survive this festival maybe. €200-400 for a tent that'll make it to next year, if this year doesn't get rained out, and you don't bother spend a few days at home drying it out so it's not a mouldfest when you go to use it next year, and €400+ for something you'll care about.

The huge disconnect between UK/EU usage and US usage is that there's often very little other reason to own a tent here. Even if you don't go camping in the US, you could, and that hypothetical is enough to get you to spend a few bucks more on something that's worth taking home with you.

(This comment offered without suggestions - perhaps a why, probably not a how.)

Sorry but people DEFINITELY do this at big US festivals too. Bonnaroo/Coachella for sure.

Cities and towns should give these out to the homeless at places they want to direct the homeless to. Better than nothing. I hear naysayers saying this would be sweeping the problem under the rug and or enabling homelessness, but it will happen anyway and there are certain types that don't do well in shelters.

Funny, I never would have the idea of buying a tent to leave it on the field after a festival. Even a cheap one. I had a similar feeling the first time a saw a disposable camera. Leave me now, I need to sit and reflect on the meaning of life.

Great idea and I’ll buy one now

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