A Dutch football club is looking for proven solutions for the development and production of sustainable cups. The foreseen solution will replace the current plastic cups used for drinking beer and soft drinks. Since the solution should also lead to less waste disposal, new logistic ways and other out of the box ideas may be considered. Companies and academics are sought via a technical cooperation agreement. This request refers to a challenge published on an internet-platform.
The football club is linked to a Dutch city with 180.000 inhabitants, and is playing in the “Keuken Kampioen Divisie” league, which is the second highest football competition in the Netherlands. The club welcomes each match about 14.000 to 19.000 visitors in the stadium and has the highest beer turnover of all football clubs in the Netherlands.
The club has a sustainable ambition. The use of disposable plastics will be phased out in the near future. Alternatives, like drinking glasses is, due to safety, forbidden in the stands. And also drinking beer (and soft drinks) from paper cups is not desirable.
The club is looking for a solution to replace the plastic cups to something more sustainable. The solution should in the meantime also reduce the waste disposal. The solution should also take into account that the product cannot hurt players when thrown from the stands on the field by a visitor and also cannot be used to hurt other visitors accidentally or on purpose in case of a fight. Furthermore, the preference is that the solution may not lead to longer waiting times at the counters.
The football club is looking for partners such as R&D-institutes, universities and SMEs with expertise in circular product design and/or production and subsequent logistics. In the first instance, the cooperation is envisaged within a technical cooperation agreement. When fits the purpose also other agreements, subsequent to a foreseen development program or part of the value chain, can be discussed.