Poster Valdonė Šuškevičė

Application of reusable cup service at Lithuanian summer festivals: different reuse models, and best practices for circular economy

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Poster Šuškevičė
Poster Šuškevičė

Introduction

Festivals generate huge amounts of waste during a short period of time (Zelenika, I., 2018), usually in 3-4 days. Packaging waste makes up a large part of the festivals total waste amount (Martinho, G. et. al, 2018; Zelenika, I., 2018). 3 alternative reusable beverage cup strategies were tested in 7 Lithuanian music festivals during 2019 summer season in order to eliminate single use plastic cups. One size reusable plastic “CupCup” cups were used. “CupCup” provided full reusable beverage cups service - instead of single use “take-make-use-dispose” model “CupCup” provided fully reusable “take-make-use-reuse” model for each festival which varied in size, style, attendees behavior, and reuse model.

Figure 1. Reusable cups reuse models divided into three categories.
Figure 1. Reusable cups reuse models divided into
three categories.

Summarizing all models, and events were divided into 3 categories:

A - fully reusable deposit-return model;
B - fully reusable not refundable model;
C - partly reusable deposit-return model.

Research questions

RQ1: How many cups will be lost, damaged, and used during the festivals, and how significant are the differences among each event category?

RQ2: What impact reusable cup model make on material circularity comparing with single use beverage cup model within the festival?

RQ3: How many single use plastic cups were eliminated from the events by applying reusable beverage cup systems?

Main method

In order to answer 3 research questions 7 case studies in festivals were performed (RQ1), materials flow analysis (MFA) (RQ1, RQ3), materials circularity indicator (MCI) developed by Ellen MacArthur Foundation (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015) (RQ2) was used.

Figure 2.
Figure 2. Simplified scheme of reusable and single use of cups.

Main results

Figure 3. cupcup
Figure 3. Material flow diagram of reusable cups in seven festivals.

About 5% of reusable cups were lost, and 7% of the cups were damaged, total loss is 12%. Deposit-return models (A,C event categories) has lower rates of damaged, and lost cups comparing to not refundable reusable cup model (B category) (see figure 4).

Figure 4. damaged, lost, and total loss of reusable cups in A, B, C event categories.

Figure 4. damaged, lost, and total loss of reusable cups
in A, B, C event categories.

98 280 units of single use beverage plastic (PP) cups were eliminated by applying reusable cup systems that equals to 786.24 kg of plastic were saved from becoming waste (see figure 5).

Figure 5. Material flow diagram of single use cups in seven festivals
Figure 5. Material flow diagram of single use cups in seven festivals
Material circularity indicator (MCI) of reusable PP cups reuse, and single use PP cups recycling.

Figure 6. Material circularity indicator (MCI) of reusable
PP cups reuse, and single use PP cups recycling.

Single use PP cup material circularity indicator (MCI) is 0.68; MCI of PP reusable cup is 0.94 (see figure 6). The calculations show that PP cup reuse has higher MCI (material circularity indicator) than single use PP cup recycling.

Main conclusions

  • Economic measures have positive impact on the return rates and preservation of reusable packaging - higher return rates, and lower damage rates (A,C categories).
  • The research reveal that consumer understanding and awareness are key elements that have a significant impact on the circularity of the packaging.
  • There is a need of deeper understanding of single use PP cups recycling and waste treatment technologies and methods in Baltic state reagion so that compare single use and reusable cups system more precisely.

Author

Valdonė Šuškevičė is PhD student at Kaunas University of Technology, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Lithuania. Her major field of interest is packaging materials management in circular economy.

References

Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2015). Circularity Indicators. An Approach to Measuring Circularity. Project Overview.

Martinho, G., Gomes, A., Ramos, M.,Santos, P., Gonçalves, G., Fonseca, M., Pires, A. (2018). Solid waste prevention and management at green festivals: A case study of the Andanças Festival, Portugal. Waste Management, Volume 71, January 2018, Pages 10/18.

Zelenika, I., Moreau, T., Zhao, J. (2018). Toward zero waste events: Reducing contamination in waste streams with volunteer assistance.

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