Beer Cups

Hey Everyone -

I work with Eco-Products, and we are the provider for many of the cups / plates / containers that you see around the PB festivals, as well as a sponsor. (A few of us are also festivarians...)

This year we asked for the opportunity to try doing the reusable beer cups in a 25% post-consumer recycled content version. This has never been done before, and PB was willing to give it a shot, despite the fact that there would be a few differences from years past that we knew about, and one difference that we did not anticipate...

1) Shape - you all no doubt noticed that this year's cups were taller and thinner. Long story short, cups are made in molds, and companies like us either own those molds or use existing ones that may be available to them. Our situation being the latter of the two, the cup you saw in Telluride was the best mold we could get access to for this year's events.

2) Material - in past years, the cups were made from 100% virgin #2 HDPE plastic. That's the same plastic used to make milk jugs and most laundry detergent bottles. It's a remarkably pliable resin. For this year, we could not find a source of post-consumer #2 plastic, so we settled on #5 (Polypropylene or PP), knowing that it would not be as pliable, and wouldn't stand up as well to the rigors of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Still everyone was willing to give it a shot, so we went for it.

3) Print - so...I've been working on these cups for most of this year trying to get everything ready for Telluride. Lots of moving parts, so I was super psyched to get in on Thursday and finally see them in action. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that none of the cups said "Telluride Bluegrass Festival 2012" on them! Dustin was correct when he told you guys that the shipments were mixed up. Our manufacturing partner sent all of the Lyons cups (RG / FF / Kinfolk print) to Telluride, and sent all of the Telluride cups to Lyons. That's why there are Telluride cups available to you guys at the Lyons events for the rest of the summer.

Really I just want to say thank you to everyone for dealing with our growing pains on this project. Sounds like we might have access to a post-consumer #2 resin for next year, so that would fix the cracking and durability issues. Not sure about the shape piece yet, but I can guarantee that Telluride printed cups will be in Telluride next year even if I have to pack the boxes and ship them myself!

One last note, we will be collecting any cups at the rest of this summer's events that you all don't take home and repurposing the plastic for use in future products - could be next year's cups but if we switch back to #2 plastic we'll use them for something else. There will be special bins around the beer stand and at the entrance / exit for these.

That's all for now - happy to answer any questions you all might have.

Best,

Wendell