Sydney Showground ban plastic cups in death of beer snake
Sydney Showground has decided to ban plastic cups, meaning an Australian sporting icon — the beer snake — will officially become a relic of the past.
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The beer snake is about to become extinct.
Overzealous security guards might have tried and failed to stamp out the iconic symbol of the restless and well-quenched Australian sporting crowd.
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But the unwieldy empties serpent will have its head cut off once and for all, at least in Sydney’s west, following a landmark decision to ban plastic cups.
Sunday’s AFL season opener between the GWS Giants and Essendon shapes as the start of a potential environmental revolution at sporting grounds in Australia, with the Sydney Showground officially outlawing the sale of single-use disposable plastic cups.
Footy fans will instead be served their beers in re-usable cups only — at the cost of $1 per head — after the Sydney Showground signed a multi-year agreement with WISE; an environmentally motivated company that has declared war on beer snakes across the country.
Punters will be required to pay a one-off $2 deposit for their first reusable cup and then they’ll receive a fresh, new one for free with every beverage refill.
At full-time, fans can either choose to get $1 back or keep the reusable cup and donate their gold coin to charity.
An estimated 12 million plastic disposable cups are used throughout the AFL season at grounds around the country, with the MCG alone selling around 500,000 beers in throwaway cups during the Boxing Day Test.
During a rain delay between Australia and Sri Lanka at an SCG Test in 2013, punters manufactured a 175-metre plastic cup beer snake.
It might have been spectacular, but it was ultimately disastrous for the environment.
Re-usable cups are already commonplace at many major sporting venues in Europe, with Lord’s cricket ground banning plastic and introducing them last year ahead of this winter’s Ashes.
The Sydney Showground deal covers all GWS and Sydney Thunder BBL matches as well as the Sydney 7’s rugby union tournament, where fan feedback was overwhelmingly positive to a trial of reusable cups.
GWS and the Thunder will be encouraged to put their branding on the cups to add a souvenir dimension.
WISE chief executive and co-founder Craig Lovett is confident punters will be happy to pay an extra $1 for a better quality drinking experience, and help eradicate a massive environmental crisis.
“Over five million disposable plastic cups are going to landfill in Australia each month. They are contaminating our land and are ending up in waterways, rivers and beaches,” said Lovett.
“The WISE solution empowers patrons and venue management to actively participate in the war-on-waste and make a significant environmental change.
“Almost 96 per cent of respondents (to market research in Sydney and Melbourne) wanted to see single-use cups being eliminated, and they were strongly in favour of donating their $1 returnable deposit to charity.”
It’s predicted the move to reusable cups at Sydney Showground will also majorly cut down on cleaning costs.
Sydney Showground RAS chief executive Brock Gilmour said the agreement was a no-brainer.
“The WISE cups are a sensible and practical answer to a growing environmental issue,” he said.
Originally published as Sydney Showground ban plastic cups in death of beer snake