Refillable cups at a summer festival in Szeged

This is not finally Recycling, but Reusing, a real preventive measure, a serious step towards zero (as an ideal goal state) waste. With the title Green Festival, numerous environmental organizations unpacked at the Green Place. 12-14 thousand youths partied daily, a liquor dealer and 20-22 caterers provided them with drink and food. There were 27 thousand cups in use at the happening. There were 8 thousand left over from last year: 27 thousand were in use within the system, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection (KvvM) donated 10 thousand cups. The cups went between the pubs, retailers, and the cleaners by delivery note. Under a general agreement the price of beer in the re-cups was lower than that of packaged beer, so almost everyone consumed from the cups. According to our source, consumption of canned beer nearly complete stopped. The ÁNTSZ (State Provider of Health and Doctors) won’t permit you to have your own cup filled, yet abroad this is a practice that works great. After they transported to the „show washer” the used cups, eight young workers got to work on them (the washer workerd for eight shifts!”. The cups spent 4-5 minutes in the washing equipment, and then they were dripping onto plates for a while. The process is slow and complicated as the water wont drip down from the plastic surfaces. They put the cups in foil in packages of 15 (also because of ÁNTSZ specifications), boxed them and sent them back to the pubs. Narrow establishments, heat, and noise. But, it must be worse to work in plastic processing...... Meanwhile Péter Novák (he led the zero waste talks in the Green Place tent) appeared, with a re-cup in hand of course, and we looked at the exchange system more closely. They inducted a festival-token currency, which people exchanged everywhere for clean cups, and in two places they even gave money for it. On re-cup was 200 HUF in value (the production of one of them is more or less that much, but now there is a Hungarian manufacturer). Success! The much extra effort brought the results: according to a focus group oriented study more than 80% of those at the festival „like and understand” the system, said Koppány Mangel, a co-worker of the festival, an old acquaintance of us. The acceptance of the upside of this system by the caterers (who get more work this way) is nearly universal. Last year we wrote about an Austrian lifecycle-dissection, which without question showed the ecological advantages of refillable cups. It would be good to count it for the summer festival in Szeged also, but our serious feeling is that with washing, drying, and together with all the hoopla this should be adopted, rather than the sea of cups that are thrown away. Beer is the same from the re-cups, but feels better. „Guys, the problem is” – begins an architercture student in good spirits, who apperantly made use of the advantages of the system – „that there are 49 cups in each tent”. „Yes they’re coming back later” – nods Koppány. But the cups have a significant value, our new friend informs us: „I did a cannonballl into the pool at five in the morning and I left 5 cups next to my shoes and bag byut by the time I came back someone returned the cups!” „But this idea was a good thing and supportable as well” – he concludes. Written by László Szilágyi Translated by Gergő Ortutay