Top: Reuse images courtesy Green Sports Alliance

The Green Sports Alliance, which leverages the cultural and market influence of sports to promote healthy, sustainable communities, released the “Reuse Playbook” for Sports and Entertainment Venues. The guide focuses on a closed system where the reusable food and beverage serviceware is intended to be returned before leaving the premises. It is collected for washing and redistributed back to the food or beverage vendor to be used again. “Because closed loop systems have natural boundaries that signal consumers to return reusable serviceware, they are often an easier environment for implementing reuse,” explains the Playbook’s introduction. The primary measure of success for a reuse program is the return rate — a percentage calculated by tracking how many items were used and collected over a specific period. “While a minimum number of uses is needed to break even in impact, the return rate also dictates a maximum average number of uses,” notes the Playbook. “A 90% return rate achieves 10 uses on average per cup, which means 500,000 reusable cups replace 5 million single-use cups. A 95% return rate achieves 20 uses on average, needing only 250,000. The higher the return rate, the fewer reusable cups you need.”