Strawberry Fair presents a challenge... as does the Arts Cinema

What perfect timing to start the Zero Waste Challenge on the weekend of Strawberry Fair.

On Friday night, I headed off to the Strawberry Fair Film Festival (which was excellent), and afterwards, headed to the Fort St George for a pint.

This is where I encountered my first challenge. The Fort were only serving drinks in thin plastic containers, and when I asked for a glass one (I was remaining inside, so saw no problem), they refused.

I find it strange, and certainly not great customer service, that one pub can be being so wasteful, against the wishes of a customer, and yet, across town at The Mill, they've got an excellent scheme where you pay a 20p deposit for a sturdy plastic pint pot.

Again: the beer festival gets this well sorted by giving out glass pots at the beginning of the evening, for a deposit of £2. It works brilliantly!

I'd love to hear the views of others on this one: should we place restrictions on the licenses for outdoor events, to say that they must not use disposable plastic containers. If one event, and one pub can do it, then surely all can.

To add to my frustration, I went to see a film at the Arts Cinema, and, thinking I was being careful about my waste, I asked for something in a glass bottle, a ginger beer... only to see it poured into a paper coke cup, complete with lid and straw!

I'm now starting to realise that my black bin isn't the worst of my waste...