Both the Paris Olympics and the recent Euro Football Championship in Germany provided the attending public with reusable cups and containers. It's now an inevitable sign of the times that event organisers are switching to reusables rather than wasteful single-use plastics. It's also a case that both those major events were held in countries that have recently introduced packaging laws that support reusable uptake.

Properly arranged, reuse systems at events are an obvious next step. They reduce resource use, greenhouse emissions and waste, as long as those cups and containers are collected, washed and reused, multiple times. Whist we still have to wait to find out what the cup return rate at the Paris Olympics was, a start has been made. What we certainly didn't need was to find out that Coke, an official Games sponsor, were in the habit of decanting drinks from single use plastic bottles into reusable cups to sell!

The main point is that major events should now consider providing reusable cups and containers as a standard practice. Reusable cups and containers are available, what is needed are the systems to collect and reuse to be put in place. There is no point in having reusables, if they are not getting collected and returned. The good news is that these collection and return systems exist and are now just waiting to be utilised.

In Australia a growing number of stadiums and major festivals and event organisers are taking the step to reuse, and we welcome this. However, change is slow. What we really need is government to set some new rules and make reuse cups and containers standard practice at all sporting stadiums and at all major events. 

The Commonwealth Government is about to release a consultation paper on a product stewardship for packaging scheme and every other jurisdiction has a plastic reduction plan. This is their opportunity to set those rules, and there is no time to waste.

The Boomerang Alliance Choose to Reuse Report is available here.