Lost Village set out to cut their environmental impacts from their 2021 edition by eliminating single use plastic cups from their waste stream. Pre-pandemic, Lost Village had used cups made from recycled content, which were recycled at the end of the event, but they recognised that ultimately this was still a single-use system which needed to change.
Lost Village worked with the ONE Planet ONE Chance Reusable Cup System for its August 2021 event; the reusable system is a fully managed service, meaning the cups are delivered onsite in company-owned and driven vehicles, and are delivered to the bar operators by a dedicated cup crew. The ONE Planet ONE Chance team supply and manage cup return points & provide ‘binfrastructure’, so festival-goers know where to put used cups. They also provide pre-event and point-of-sale communications material explaining the system to audiences, as well as having the crews onsite to make sure it all runs smoothly.
The cups are returned unwashed and taken to one of four wash centres around the UK, which together are capable of washing over a million cups each week. It’s not a deposit scheme – ONE Planet ONE Chance charge a flat fee and with their premium service and there is no charge for cup losses. ONE Planet ONE Chance is also committed to making their reusable cup system carbon neutral: they measure emissions from transport and washing and offset the carbon through UK tree planting. They source the cups from a supplier who offsets the production emissions.
The introduction of reusable cups eliminated the use of over 220,000 single-use cups at Lost Village which, in turn, diverted over 2,200 kg of single-use plastic from being reprocessed.
Through a UK tree planting initiative Event Cup Solutions (operators of the ONE Planet ONE Chance Reusable Cup System) planted 93 trees to offset 22 tonnes of CO2e emissions generated by the ONE Planet ONE Chance Reusable Cup System activation at this festival.
Other benefits of the system included a vast reduction in litter & litter-picking costs, reduced waste management costs and a hugely improved customer experience – most people can agree that using a hard polypropylene cup is a superior experience than drinking from a single-use plastic cup. Lost Village Festival will be using the system again in 2022.
To find out more about the system or get a quote for your event contact: John Reeves, Director | Tel 01642 917 490 | john@oneplanetonechance.co.uk | www.oneplanetonechance.co.uk