Reusable beer cups launched at festival

Shropshire Festivals are launching a reusable beer cup scheme at this year's Shropshire Oktoberfest in The Quarry, in Shrewsbury.

The event takes place on October 4 and 5, and organisers are busy coordinating brewers from across the region to serve up over 150 real ales. The festival will also feature bars serving up local lager, cider and perry, with a prosecco parlour, gin den, wine bar and rum shack providing plenty of choice for Shropshire’s drinkers.

This year a reusable beer cup scheme will be in place which has been sponsored by recruitment firms Opus Vitae and DM Recruitment. Drinkers will be able to pick up pint or half pint glasses with a £1 deposit at the festival, and either keep the cup or return it to reclaim their deposit.

No disposable plastic cups will be permitted at the entire event in order to reduce plastic waste. The events company are striving to make their festivals zero waste.

Shropshire Festivals' director of fun, Beth Heath, said: “We’ve been working towards the reusable beer cup scheme for some time and with sponsorship from DM Recruitment and Opus Vitae, we have been able to order thousands of our beautiful new reusable beer cups.

“We are committed to reducing our waste. We have a waste management team who sorts all of the festival’s rubbish on site so nearly everything is recycled, which helps us to achieve our goal of zero landfill." 

Stuart Danks, director of DM Recruitment and Opus Vitae, said: “We are extremely proud to be the official sponsor of Shropshire Festivals' reusable beer cups. It is important to our company ethos to be part of local initiatives that help our community look after the environment."

Another first for the festival will be a silent disco, as a novel alternative to the live music stage, which has a jam-packed line-up of local talent including Asparagus and the Kilburn, Vorsprung Durch Oompah, Dirty Rockin’ Scoundrels, Five O’clock Hero and Bouncing Betty.