Liverpool supporters found an unexpected sideline during their Champions League away trip to Austria, where LASK's deposit system for reusable drinking cups turned discarded beer cups into cashback. According to reports, many fans spent the evening and the period after the match collecting cups from the stands and concourses so they could claim the return payment.
A deposit scheme built around reuse
The Austrian club has promoted a plastic-free stadium model and uses a deposit system to encourage supporters to bring reusable containers back to collection points instead of throwing them away. Rather than treating cups as single-use waste, the system gives each container a returnable value that is paid back when it is handed in.
Circular economy messaging at competition level
UEFA claims to be placing greater emphasis on circular-economy measures at its club competitions. Liverpool, meanwhile, has been publicising its own recycling record at Anfield, saying that more than one million plastic bottles have been recycled there over the past three seasons.
The reports centre on the cash fans were able to recover rather than on measured environmental outcomes, so the wider waste-reduction effect of the Austrian scheme has not been quantified in the accounts.