During a large-scale event, be it a music festival or a baseball game, disposable plastic cups, bags, and bottles seem to pile up by the second. Luckily, Ryan Everton, now 25, came up with an idea that has a chance to revolutionize the way we manage this problem. And the idea itself is quite simple – his company, Globelet, produces and distributes reusable cups and containers to event-goers!

The idea has come to Everton in a suitable setting – he was at a rugby game, drinking beer and watching the used plastic cups pile up next to him. He started to wonder if people could be convinced to reuse one cup during an event like that – especially if they had an incentive in form of money for returning the cup once they were done using it. That was how Globelet started.

Globelet has grown beyond expectations. In five years, it has changed into a multi-million dollar business and is popular at festivals all across Australasia.

During events served by the company, people pay for one reusable plastic cup, which they then proceed to use throughout the day or night. Once they do not need it anymore, they return it and get their money back – or they can keep it as a souvenir.

The cups are made by the company itself. Globelet also makes sure that once they are used and returned, they get properly recycled. The entirety of the company’s profits goes into innovation to reduce plastic waste.

The Splore festival in New Zealand is one of Globelet’s clients. Amazingly, five years ago, 50,000 single-use cups were used over the event – but now, they use 10,000 reusable ones from Globelet! “All are washed, 80 percent of them get returned, .07 percent end up in a bin and are returned to us, and 2,000 of them go home to be reused,” Everton told Daily Mail.

The company has also worked with such events as the Big Day Out festival and the Sydney Festival.

This simple swap saves the event creators a significant amount of money, but most importantly, it saves the site from an immense volume of litter – and it reduces the amount of plastic waste that can eventually end up in waterways, harming marine animals.

Overall, this seems like a win-win-win to us! To learn more about Globelet, click here.

If you’re feeling inspired to reduce the amount of plastic you use in your everyday life, check out One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign!

All image source: Globelet