Courtesy of r.World
The next beer that you buy at Crypto.com Arena might come in a cup that you had guzzled from before.
In a move to curtail the environmental impact of single-use plastics, executives announced Wednesday a reusable cup pilot program for the downtown Los Angeles arena that will begin with Depeche Mode concerts promoted by Live Nation on Dec. 15 and 17.
While the AEG-owned venue and its recycling partner ABM now sort, on site, single-use food service ware for recycling — an average of 15,000 cups are now used per event, according to a company spokesperson — this program with the reuse platform r.World could eventually divert hundreds of thousands of cups from the waste stream.
Here’s how it works: The used plastic cups are collected in specially marked bins, then taken to a nearby r.World industrial wash hub facility, where they are cleaned and returned to Crypto.com.
AEG has already partnered with r.World on reusable efforts at festivals and smaller concert venues like the El Rey Theatre in L.A.
“We were inspired by the artist’s passion for eco-conscious initiatives and felt this was a fantastic opportunity to implement this exciting inaugural pilot,” Crypto.com Arena president Lee Zeidman said in a statement. “Our aim is to ignite a wave of positive change and rally our audience and partners to actively participate in shaping a more eco-conscious future.”
Following the pilot program, AEG execs will evaluate data from the concerts, and collaborations with current or future partners could make r.World a full-time option for those visiting the busy entertainment venue for concerts and L.A. Lakers, Kings, Clippers and Sparks games.
Michael Martin, founder and CEO of r.World, saluted Crypto.com Arena for “driving change across the live events industry.”
In addition to L.A., r.World, founded in 2017, has facilities in Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., with plans to expand to 8-to-12 additional cities in the next 24 months.
The company has done reuse programs with other venues including the Santa Barbara Bowl, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Sphere in Las Vegas and the PGA’s 3M Open tournament in Minneapolis.