The amazing history of cups at Wonderfruit

Cups at Wonderfruit have been our lowkey headliners. 

 

From year one, we knew there was no room for errant plastic in The Fields, and we began experimenting with single-use cups made from more sustainable materials like PLA and even 100% compostable and biodegradable materials like bagasse and sugarcane. Those were cool and they looked great, but in the end, they still created waste and the mountains of them that were left behind didn’t look great at all. Those mountains of waste needed new homes, and we found a use for some as nourishing pulp for our farms and others made their way onto the roofs of future builds. But it was still a lot of work with inconsistent results. Not to mention the carbon emissions that come with the manufacture, storage, and transport of cups that would only be used one time.

After a lot of hard work, we decided to all-out ban single-use cups altogether—even the “environmentally friendly” ones. A radical move for a gathering of our size, but in 2019 we welcomed more than 20,000 Wonderers to The Fields and all of them brought or bought refillable cups. In that same year, we prevented 200,000 cups from landing in our compost, and guests who picked up our sleekly-designed rice husk or steel cups—called Wondercups—got to take home a piece of The Fields to use all year, which is by all accounts like taking home a slice of paradise.

 

Every year, our cups evolve into a better version of themselves. What does the future hold for our beloved purveyors of tasty tipples? We’re always workin’ on that.