Whenever you go to an event now, anywhere in the country, from festivals to fetes, you’ll always come away with a reusable cup or two, which usually end up stashed away in a cupboard gathering dust. So now Lewes Town Council have organised a Cup Amnesty, which is your chance to put those cups back into circulation, and at the same time reduce plastic use across Lewes.

The Town Council have been gradually introducing their own ‘Refill not Landfill’ reusable cups to events in the town over the past year, after young people in the town asked for the bonfire celebrations to use less plastic. Most pubs were selling the cups at bonfire last year, and since then they’ve slowly spread, with Lewes Football Club now using them, along with other big festival-like events such as the Battle of Lewes and Priory by Candlelight.

Town Councillor Nick Tigg, who helped organise the project, said: “Young people in Lewes asked us to make this happen and we’ve done our best to honour that. Most events you go to now use reusable cups, it’s the way things are going, and we’re a bit slow to catch up with that here. Single-use plastic is a real problem, causing a lot of litter in the town and on our beautiful South Downs. Reusable cups are a great alternative and can be used for years. We just need a few more of them back from people’s kitchen cupboards!”

Collecting the cups after events can be tricky – people tend to wander off without leaving them behind. So if you’ve got a cup or two in your kitchen, join the Cup Amnesty and drop them into Lewes Football Club on Mountfield Road on any matchday in October. They’ll be washed, dried, and reused for more events – a big win for recycling and a great help in reducing single-use plastic.

What’s more, if you attend any of the following Lewes FC matches then you can swap your ‘Refill not Landfill’ cups for a Lewes FC-branded cup for free!

Here are the fixtures:

• Lewes Men vs Bracknell Town – Saturday 5 October, 3pm (limited edition cup swap)
• Lewes Women vs Plymouth Argyle – Sunday 6 Oct, 2pm (limited edition cup swap)
• Lewes Men vs Billericay – Saturday 12 October, 3pm (standard cup swap)
• Lewes Men vs Dover – Saturday 26 October, 3pm (standard cup swap)
• Lewes Women vs Cheltenham – Sunday 27 October, 2pm (standard cup swap)

Lewes FC will ensure all cups handed in during the amnesty – or swapped during matchdays – will be thoroughly cleaned and dried before they are sent back to the Town Hall.