Re-usable plastic cups...grrr...
Discussion
I'm presumably your average PH type on the eco scale, concerned about unnecessary waste driven by rampant consumerism, annoyed by unnesessary supermarket packaging and Costa cups blowing around in the wind, very concerned about plastic in the sea...I might try and use a bicycle for short journeys and the nursery run, but I think nothing at turning petrol into lots of noise because sometimes a 50 mile round trip down favourite B roads with the roof down and the revs up for a pint of milk makes perfect sense.
But I'm now seeing something that is clearly profit pretending to be "eco" in outside bars. I started seeing these "reusable cups" at a few sailing events a few years ago at large organised commercial outside bars. Fair enough, each drink carries a £1 surcharge for the much thicker than usual grade plastic cup, and if you remember to return it through your drunken haze, you get your quid back at the end of the night. If you forget, enterprising local kids run around collecting stack of them and cash in and spend the takings on drugs or something.
But I've been to a few car shows/steam rallies over the summer where a nice pint of shandy is just what the doctor ordered (yes, I know, but driving...booo...) but now you can't actually get the £1 refunded. Net result, I now have a collection of hideously coloured, non matching plastic cups, that are too horrible to even be used for camping duties or similar, and are probably just going to end up in the bin. They probably contain 5 times the plastic of a disposable one, and with all the graphics probably killed many more seal pups in their production and no doubt the energy used for recycling.
I'm hoping someone knows some good science behind this, but the cynic in me thinks all that will happen is the bar makes a truck load more money, no doubt recovers armfuls of the cups at the end of the event for reuse and resale, and loads of plastic ends up in the ecosystem anyway...and that is pretty damned annoying TBH!!!
But I'm now seeing something that is clearly profit pretending to be "eco" in outside bars. I started seeing these "reusable cups" at a few sailing events a few years ago at large organised commercial outside bars. Fair enough, each drink carries a £1 surcharge for the much thicker than usual grade plastic cup, and if you remember to return it through your drunken haze, you get your quid back at the end of the night. If you forget, enterprising local kids run around collecting stack of them and cash in and spend the takings on drugs or something.
But I've been to a few car shows/steam rallies over the summer where a nice pint of shandy is just what the doctor ordered (yes, I know, but driving...booo...) but now you can't actually get the £1 refunded. Net result, I now have a collection of hideously coloured, non matching plastic cups, that are too horrible to even be used for camping duties or similar, and are probably just going to end up in the bin. They probably contain 5 times the plastic of a disposable one, and with all the graphics probably killed many more seal pups in their production and no doubt the energy used for recycling.
I'm hoping someone knows some good science behind this, but the cynic in me thinks all that will happen is the bar makes a truck load more money, no doubt recovers armfuls of the cups at the end of the event for reuse and resale, and loads of plastic ends up in the ecosystem anyway...and that is pretty damned annoying TBH!!!
There is already a plastic cup whinge thread running in 'Food N drink' btw, post your feelings there.
What I've recently noticed about recycling is that everyone thinks it's someone elses job and not their own. Most threads contain people pointing the finger at everyone but themselves. Take a look at the Glastonbury plastic waste thread for examples.
What I've recently noticed about recycling is that everyone thinks it's someone elses job and not their own. Most threads contain people pointing the finger at everyone but themselves. Take a look at the Glastonbury plastic waste thread for examples.
Perhaps I'm a bit odd, but with having a 2 year old and a 4 year old, I went and bought some polycarbonate glasses, so the kids can knock them over without shattering. We had some polycarbonate wine glasses as well (not as unbreakable as made out, they all snapped at the stem). We brought home a thick plastic glass after a food festival and continued to use it at home, so decided to get some better ones. I don't really get the issue with plastic glasses when they are thicker plastic and don't flex, although the thin disposable ones are terrible things.
ColinM50 said:
Take them home, give a rinse and re-use at the next event. How hard can it be
Erm, because I don't want to go to an all day show, be walking around all day carrying a plastic pint glass just in case I fancy a drink and just in case the bar are operating a "you have to buy it" policy. We are talking a pint glass...you're not exactly going to stick it in your pocket with your phone are you?It's not the recycling element that annoys me...I'm a big fan of reusable water bottles during the working day or whenever really. I drink more water, save money, save wasteage...win all round. But that's different to carrying an otherwise totally useless empty pint glass around.
It's fine if the bar uses glasses, doesn't charge for the reusable ones, used paper ones or operated a deposit system. But forcing you to buy one so you're essentially stuck with more unwanted plastic seems hypocritical, wasteful and poorly disguised profiteering.
They had this at Download Festival and when I saw Metallica at the Etihad the other week, think it was a good idea, the amount of empty glasses on the floor was non existent compared to previous years, the few paper cups that were still there for soft drinks at download were still collected up by people who'd get paid 10 or 20p per cup returned. I kept my cups as they were branded with the events on, which I thought could come in use for BBQ's and the like.
Hard-Drive said:
ColinM50 said:
Take them home, give a rinse and re-use at the next event. How hard can it be
Erm, because I don't want to go to an all day show, be walking around all day carrying a plastic pint glass just in case I fancy a drink and just in case the bar are operating a "you have to buy it" policy. We are talking a pint glass...you're not exactly going to stick it in your pocket with your phone are you?It's not the recycling element that annoys me...I'm a big fan of reusable water bottles during the working day or whenever really. I drink more water, save money, save wasteage...win all round. But that's different to carrying an otherwise totally useless empty pint glass around.
It's fine if the bar uses glasses, doesn't charge for the reusable ones, used paper ones or operated a deposit system. But forcing you to buy one so you're essentially stuck with more unwanted plastic seems hypocritical, wasteful and poorly disguised profiteering.
https://urbangifts.co.uk/products/pop-up-pint-glas...
KingNothing said:
They had this at Download Festival and when I saw Metallica at the Etihad the other week, think it was a good idea, the amount of empty glasses on the floor was non existent compared to previous years, the few paper cups that were still there for soft drinks at download were still collected up by people who'd get paid 10 or 20p per cup returned. I kept my cups as they were branded with the events on, which I thought could come in use for BBQ's and the like.
Same for the Download experience, although I managed to accumulate about 15 of them... god knows how.. But in comparison to a carpet of white paper Tuborg cups mashed into the ground.. small fry..But you can return the ones at Download and get your deposit back, so it's really not a massive problem.
Hard-Drive said:
ColinM50 said:
Take them home, give a rinse and re-use at the next event. How hard can it be
Erm, because I don't want to go to an all day show, be walking around all day carrying a plastic pint glass just in case I fancy a drink and just in case the bar are operating a "you have to buy it" policy. We are talking a pint glass...you're not exactly going to stick it in your pocket with your phone are you?It's not the recycling element that annoys me...I'm a big fan of reusable water bottles during the working day or whenever really. I drink more water, save money, save wasteage...win all round. But that's different to carrying an otherwise totally useless empty pint glass around.
It's fine if the bar uses glasses, doesn't charge for the reusable ones, used paper ones or operated a deposit system. But forcing you to buy one so you're essentially stuck with more unwanted plastic seems hypocritical, wasteful and poorly disguised profiteering.
there rolling these out at running races now and you just buy it and crush it down into a pocket or race vest , no problem .
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