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A cup reuse and refill program offers a simple and effective way to save money on your purchase of cups and to reduce trash pick-ups. Here are some important guidelines for planning your own reuse or refill program.Offer refills with or without a souvenir cup. Refills cut costs in both purchasing and waste hauling while reducing waste. Refills in a souvenir cup reduce waste the most, as each cup replaces many disposable cups before being taken home as a reminder of your event. If you sell a souvenir cup, you are already reducing waste. The following tips can help you get the most benefit from your souvenir cup program. If you aren't offering a souvenir cup, use these tips to get started:

Choose an interesting cup style. A cup with a unique and visually exciting design that is tied to the theme of your event will sell.

Estimate the number of souvenir cups to order based on your records of cup use. Keep records to allow you to  refine your cup order from year to year. For some guidelines on numbers, consult our case studies.

Consider your crowd. Younger festival-goers tend to be interested in purchasing souvenir of the event, so the design of the cup will be a selling point to this group.  Older festival-goers are more motivated to use a refillable cup to save money and  reduce waste.

Corporate sponsorship is an effective way to offset cup costs. The event logo can be printed on one side of the cup, and advertisements for the sponsors on the other side. Then, revenue from the sale of the cups cans be used to offset a discounted refill program, or to raise funds for the event.

Change your cup design periodically so that repeat festival visitors who already have a cup at home will be motivated to buy one again.  People have been known to collect souvenir cups when each year's design is different.

Use point of purchase signs to promote the refillable cups as a means of reducing waste and as souvenirs. Signs should explain the refill policy.

Use a clear cup for refill programs that include alcoholic beverages, so that underage drinking can be detected. Opaque cups are fine for soda-only refill programs.

Make sure that the servers understand the souvenir cup and refill program. Encourage them to promote the refillable cups to consumers.

Keep records of souvenir cup and refill sales so that you can measure the cost savings resulting from the program, and to ensure that your sales records are accurate. A counter near the cash box can be used to conveniently log each sale.

Choosing the right beverage dispensers is critical to a refill program. Refills are acceptable to the health department from beer taps and from soda dispensers operated with a button or automatic sensor.  It is possible to offer refills with lever-operated dispensers by filling pitchers and then pouring the beverage from a pitcher to a refillable cup.  The State of Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services states.

"Self-service beverage dispensers which have a lever that is pressed by the lip portion of a cup in order to activate the flow of the beverage are prohibited. This lever is contaminated by the lip portion of the reused cup or the patron's hand and then contaminates the cup of the next patron."

Bob Lanier Enterprises, a source of souvenir cups, contributed to this section.