KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
Each week at the Bold ReUse warehouse near Historic Independence Square, thousands of plastic cups get washed, sanitized, inspected and repackaged.
Launched in August 2022 in Portland, Oregon, Bold ReUse has spread to Seattle, Kansas City, Phoenix, Chicago, Charlotte and Santa Clara, California
The company began providing reusable cups for Kansas City Current games at CPKC Stadium last year and has already diverted more than 150,000 cups from local landfills.
Now, the Chiefs are joining Bold ReUse’s sustainability movement.
“For a Current game, we wash anywhere between 3,500 and 5,000 cups,” Jay Raines, the operations lead for Bold ReUse in Kansas City, said. ‘With the Kansas City Chiefs, we’re expecting to do about 10 times that.”
Bold ReUse cups, which are more sturdy and durable than typical single-use plastic cups, come in a variety of sizes for different beverages and customizable colors, but they have one thing in common — teams hope that fans will turn them back in for cleaning and reuse at future games.
It takes about 45 seconds for Bold ReUse’s industrial washing and sanitizing machine to clean a rack of 20 cups and five racks can be run through at a time.
After drying overnight, each cup is visually inspected. Those that need to be cleaned of water spots or remaining debris get another round of cleaning and damaged cups are set aside for recycling.
The cups that pass inspection get repackaged and returned to the venue for reuse.
“Sustainability has been out there for years,” Current Vice President of Venue Operations Michael Damas said. “This isn't something new. It's just changing people's habits and behavior. ... People are willing to do it — help the environment and be a part of it and be a part of the Current, because this is one of our goals.”
Damas said more than 95% of waste at Current games is diverted from landfills and Bold ReUse is an important partner.
When the Chiefs received a grant from the Mid-America Regional Council to launch a Bold ReUse partnership at its games and other stadium events, the Current’s operations staff helped Arrowhead’s sustainability team get up to speed on implementing the program.
“Our team has been there to see how it works,” Chiefs Executive Vice President of Operations and Events Matt Kenny said. “Obviously, they've been really successful with it and understanding the nuances of rolling something out new, they've been helpful to let us know.”
Damas said there was a learning process for fans, “but it was pretty quick. People in the Kansas City metro area are pretty happy to be part of it.”
CPKC Stadium boasts an 85% return rate for reusable cups at a typical Current game, which Raines said is an exceptional rate.
But it’s not just an environmentally conscious choice for teams and venues.
Raines said the cups cost marginally more on the front end, but it’s offset substantially on the back end, especially with such a high return rate.
“After that, they will have a wash fee, which is going to be less than what a new cup would cost, so that's the recurring fee they'll see every day,” he said. “But the major savings they're going to notice is the tonnage that they have to pay for to be taken to the landfill. Instead of all the single-use plastic that ends up going to a landfill and they have to pay dump fees on, we're going to pick up the cups and bring them back here.”
Multiply that by a half-million cups or more each NFL season and it's sustainable for the business bottom line as well, but the partnership with the Chiefs is something of an experiment.
“We've worked with both the Bears and this year we also launched with the 49ers, but this is going to be the largest launch that we have within the NFL team,” Raines said.
Bold ReUse’s operations in Chicago and Santa Clara, California, are limited to premium-seating areas. Fans throughout Arrowhead will see the reusable cups.
“This is our first full stadium launch, so this is a big step here in Kansas City for ReUse,” Raines said.
Kenny added, “It's going to be something that they've never dealt with on this scale, but we're excited to be the first.”
Fans will see bins throughout Arrowhead on Sunday as the Chiefs host the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of Super Bowl LIX.
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