The three-day Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament generated about 860,000 disposable items after spectators were banned from bringing their own reusable containers, according to Greenpeace. It left the green group, on Monday, once again urging Kai Tak Sports Park to reinstall a reusable cup system that had been in place for the annual tournament in 2019, 2023 and 2024 before it was scrapped this year, for its long-term sustainability development. The group said the operator should kick-start the system as soon as possible, with the newly open stadium expected to host at least 40 more large-scale events a year. “Otherwise, the more mega-events the park hosts, the bigger the snowball will be. More and more disposable tableware would be produced [after each event], and that would fundamentally violate the park’s goal in sustainability,” Greenpeace campaigner Leanne Tam Wing-lam said. Lam said the group learnt that the sport’s governing body Hong Kong China Rugby tried to negotiate with the park to bring back the initiative this year, but to no avail. Jamie Farndale, Hong Kong China Rugby’s general manager of club development and sustainability told the Post on Monday that green cups “could indeed become a viable option” for the park when it became more established and had gained insights into event frequency and cup reuse. “However, given that this was the first event and Kai Tak’s primary focus was on getting operations under way, we strongly encouraged them to utilise fully compostable packaging, ensuring that organic material was collected and processed correctly through their on-site composter,” Farndale said. According to the organisers, 110,000 people passed through the gates during the event, consuming “more than 350,000 food and drink items” including 82,000 litres (173,296 pints) of beer. The Post has reached out to the park for comment. The Sevens was hosted at the Hong Kong Stadium in previous years, where kiosks were set up around the venue to facilitate the collection and return of the green cups. In 2019, the operator said it had successfully saved 300,000 single use plastic cups. Greenpeace’s research team calculated the amount of disposable utensils and cups used by conducting several 30-minute viewings at 16 kiosks inside the stadium, another eight at the fan village, and 13 water dispensers during the three-day event. It estimated that 860,000 disposable tableware, including 510,000 paper cups were disposed. In their observation, the cup dispenser holders at each water station were poorly designed with users involuntarily taking more than one cup at a time, while also dropping some in the process. Lam hoped the park would improve the facility and thereby cut costs, given paper cups were not particularly cheap. She said although the use of reusable jugs for alcoholic drinks was a “good start”, the same concept should be applied to water as reusable cups were equally easy to implement. “We noticed that the fans actually appreciated this reusable jar and they did not mind using it at all. So we hope all, not just those who drink beer, could benefit from recyclable cups,” she said. She urged the government to set aside HK$10 million to implement a long-term reusable cup system at the new sports complex.