The outdoor event in Denver that made me rethink single-use cups

I was helping at a city-run sustainability fair last month at Civic Center Park, and they handed out compostable cups but the bins got contaminated within an hour because people tossed lids and straws in wrong. The organizers ended up sending 400 cups to the landfill anyway, which totally defeated the purpose. I mean, we talk about switching materials but forgetting the human side of sorting is what actually kills it. Has anyone else seen a well-meaning green event silently fail because the disposal setup was confusing?

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caseywalker20h ago

Honestly, the whole "we need better bins" take feels like a cop-out. Compostable cups are a scam anyway, they need industrial facilities that most cities dont have, so sending them to a landfill is basically the same outcome as a regular cup. The real issue is we keep pretending these materials are magic instead of just admitting that single-use anything is the problem. If the fair really wanted to be green, they'd have charged a deposit or made people use mugs, but that takes actual effort.