In today’s blog we are looking various elements of reusable cup schemes at festivals and events including deposit schemes, return bins and charity partnerships.
How do many reusable cup schemes work?
It’s fair to say that different event professionals use reusable cups in different ways. For instance, some use deposit schemes whereby when buying their first drink at the bar, the purchaser pays a refundable deposit amount – usually £1 or £2 – on top of the price of their drink. The purchaser then keeps the cup and returns to the bar for additional drinks over and over again, paying the normal price. Then, at the end of the event, they can return the cup to the bar and receive their deposit back.
Deposit schemes can sometimes lead to queue build up
However, if you feel as though such deposit schemes might lead to additional queues at the bar at your large scale event or festival, then you could also consider placing ‘bins’ for reusable plastic cups at the exit points on your festival site and your visitors can place their reusable cups in these bins, safe in the knowledge that they are going to be sorted, cleaned and reused at other events, helping to reduce the overall environmental impact. The last thing people want to be doing at a festival or large scale event is queuing at the bar for a drink and, worse still, just to get your £1 or £2 back for your reusable cup.
Collection bins at exit points & charity partners might be the solution
Depending upon how you position this, the fact that visitors don’t return to the bar to receive their nominal deposit back can help to make your reusable cups scheme cost-neutral, though you might also want to designate a preferred charity and advertise this on the collection bins so visitors can donate their refundable deposit to charity – again, helping to reinforce your green credentials and corporate responsibilities.
Likewise, working with a designated charity partner works in different ways. You can rely on people placing their reusable cup into the collection point bins, and / or you could ask your preferred charity to provide some volunteers to work on the site in the clean up phase after the event, collecting the reusable cups.
If you’re working on our reusable cup hire model, then if you don’t return the correct number of reusable cups to us that you received in the first place, then you will be charged a replacement fee. This replacement fee is much more than the fee that you could say to the charity volunteers you will give to their charity for each reusable cup they find on your site. Again, a win-win: you are contributing to charity and saving money whilst the charity also benefits from the donations you provide.
Working with a charity partner can also provide positive PR
There’s also a whole load of positive PR that can come from working alongside a charity partner, and this is something that modern festival goers expect to see – that festivals are taking their environmental responsibilities seriously. Indeed, a recent study by the CGA put forward that 24% of festival goers would not return to the same festival the following year if they didn’t think that the festival was taking their environmental responsibilities seriously. There are many more statistics similar to this that you can find online right here at Event Cup Solutions.
Whatever your preferred operating method when it comes to your reusable cups, our expert team here at Event Cup Solutions can help you, from helping you to make your scheme part of our pre-show communications through to bin branding and so on, we’ll help you customise your reusable cup solution to your specific requirements.
Don’t hesitate in contacting us today to arrange your initial consultation with one of our industry experts! We’ll be happy to discuss your specific festival or event requirements via a web video chat or simply over the phone – we look forward to hearing from you soon!
