Hard Rock Stadium is trying to go green by replacing plastic bottles with aluminum drink cups for beer and liquor at this Sunday’s Super Bowl. PepsiCo also will serve aluminum drinks. Although it is not obvious how much more beneficial this switch is for the environment — the best alternative is to eliminate single-use cups entirely.
In order to reduce waste, the Welford road Stadium in the UK, where the Leicester Tigers are based, began using reusable cups for 2019 It can now reuse the 18,000 pints sold each game, instead of throwing them out.
Aluminum is being used in beverage containers to reduce plastic pollution. Aluminum can be recycled more easily than plastic and reused nearly indefinitely. People are really upset about plastic pollution after hearing of the whales that were found with plastic bags and bottles in their stomachs. However, it isn’t clear how much aluminum is more sustainable than plastic. In fact, new aluminum takes up more energy than new plastic. However, reusable containers, no matter whether they are made of aluminum or plastic, can be more durable than any single-use item.
Troy Hottle, a senior environmental sustainability analyst and life cycle analyst at Eastern Research Group (a consulting firm), says, “In terms of choosing one material over the other, if they’re both single-use, [an aluminum coffee cup] might not have any benefits other than being non plastic.”
Virgin aluminum’s spokesperson said that it requires more energy to produce than virgin plastic. However, recycling drastically reduces that. In order to be more efficient from an energy perspective, aluminum containers should be made of recycled content that can be recycled again. Ball Corporation, which makes aluminum cups, claims that its new containers will be made from the same materials as soda bottles, which average about 70% recycled content.
Paul Pettas, Centerplate spokesperson, states that Hard Rock’s catering company, Centerplate, is not completely against the idea of using reusable cups in the future. He said, “We will streamline this and look for ways to make it an improved program. I would say that they are definitely looking at all possibilities.” Pettas reports that Centerplate’s parent company Sodexo may roll out some of the improvements during its catering for the Summer Olympics.
Ocean Conservancy’s decision to switch to aluminum is welcome news. It is now partnering with Miami Super Bowl Host Committee in their efforts to go green. Aluminum cups will be stronger than plastic, and will have the event logo on them. This means that game-goers might choose to reuse them as opposed to throwing them out. George Leonard, Ocean Conservancy chief scientist, hopes that people will take the new aluminum cups home as a keepsake.
Last year, the NFL pledged to send virtually nothing from the Super Bowl to the landfills. It met its goal of composting or reusing 91% of trash left over by fans that day.
