Another area for conservation: ball park beverages

from JoeUser Forums

There've been a few articles lately suggesting ways to cut down on the use of petroleum (which, incase you are not aware comes from oil), including my suggestions of switching to an 'alternate work schedule' for all businesses, and a few other articles talking about ceasing the use of plastic bags where possible (since plastics use a lot of petroleum in their manufacturing).

Well, another area that could see a serious cut in the unnecessary use of plastics would be in the ball parks across the U.S.A.

As an example, I go to a Washington Nationals game.  I buy a drink there and I have a choice of a waxy coated paper cup that holds a somewhat reasonable amount of drink for $3 - $4.  If, however, you are like me and like a lot of ice to keep your beverage cold, then the somewhat reasonable amount of drink drops considerably as the ice takes up room in the cup.  Ok, switch to the plastic souvenir cup and get more room for both drink and ice.  Still not great, more expensive for sure, and really only marginably a bargain.

In my case, I buy the souvenir cup, specify that I want a lot of ice in it, and sip away on that drink until the soda is gone.  At that point, back I go to get the paper cup drink specifying *no ice* since I'm going to go back and refill the souvenir plastic cup which still has a fair amount of ice left in it.  Only problem?  I've now bought a souvenir cup that I don't really need, and can't really reuse in the future (got several in my cabinets and never touch 'em again) and I've also wasted the paper cup that I bought my refill in.

If the ball park concession stands would sell refills for some reasonable fee they could cut out hundreds of pounds, if not literally tons, of paper and/or plastic waste.  If they'd offer those refills and let customers buy a cup that they could keep bringing back for discounted refills they'd be helping the environment and making customers like me happy because we'd be able to enjoy a slight discount on the drinks (enough to hopefully make it worth slugging the cups back and forth to the ball parks).

It's a model that works fairly well for Starbucks (even with their fairly pathetic $0.10 -- i.e., a dime -- discount for bringing your own cup), has been used successfully for Seven Eleven (or is that 7-11) in the past with their super big gulp cups, etc.

Now, is Aramark (the biggest of the concessions operators in the stadiums across the country) listening?

794 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

Aramark has no ears!

But on the serious side (yea right, not today), I recycle the beverages at our ball park all the time.

I contribute to the water supply!

Seriously (I guess I should be sooner or later), it is a good idea, but when they are charging $4/cup, they dont give a wit on the marginal cost of recycling.

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

Seriously (I guess I should be sooner or later), it is a good idea, but when they are charging $4/cup, they dont give a wit on the marginal cost of recycling

Sadly I don't think Aramark is doing much, if any, recycling.

As you point out, the customers are the ones recycling (in the restrooms).  The cans, bottles, and paper products wind up in the trash in most stadiums/arenas and that is a crying shame.  I could be wrong, as I vaguely recall some recycling efforts at Crammed-in Yards done by Aramark and the Orioles, but that was years ago and I really don't think they've done much to cut back on the trash that the consumers in the places are working with (or creating through their own consumption).

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

Crammed-in Yards done by Aramark

Hey! I represent that remark!  After all, as bad as they are, the Orioles are still my AL team.

(But I had to snicker.  I had not heard that term before.)

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

Crammed-in Yards

Hey! I represent that remark! After all, as bad as they are, the Orioles are still my AL team.
(But I had to snicker. I had not heard that term before.)

Well, there for a good while Oriole Park at Camden Yards was pretty much 'Crammed-in Yards', but lately they've hard a pretty tough job selling the team to the fans and getting them to turn out.

That'll be different again in just a few weeks when the O's host the Nationals and pull a bunch of Nationals fans into their park.  That series will be a sell-out or awfully close to it.   The O's also typically sell-out, or come close to a sell-out for the Yankees and Red Sox.  Sadly though it's the fans of those teams that are selling out the place, rather than the fans of the home team.

If the O's had a different owner, I might admit to being a fan of them too, but I just can't stand that greedy bastard that owns them.