A post-event cleaning crew member sweeps up rubbish amidst the "hail" of plastic. Photo / Supplied
A post-event cleaning crew member sweeps up rubbish amidst the "hail" of plastic. Photo / Supplied
A Wellington man was shocked by the "sea of plastic" left behind after Eminem's concert at Westpac Stadium on Saturday.
Peter Steele was at the concert with friends and took a photo of the mess left behind by the 46,000 attendees.
"I just saw a sea of plastic, it looked like it had hailed," he said.
"The conversation just started with 'what a mess, what pigs, where do they go, that's appalling.'"
Steele said so much fuss was being made over plastic bags at supermarkets when massive amounts of plastic cups were being used at such events. He believed there would have been at least 100,000 cups.
He and his friends discussed music festival Coastella, and how attendees had been able to purchase a $3 cup which they used throughout the festival and were able to return for a refund at the end.
Peter Steele believed there would have been about 100,000 cups left behind after the concert. Photo / Supplied
Anyone who didn't want to wait in line for their refund could put the cups in a bin, and charities could collect the refunds for their cups.
Steele questioned whether such a measure could be taken at Westpac Stadium.
A stadium spokeswoman said the amount of rubbish collected by the post-event cleaning crew was standard for a concert of this size.
"All rubbish was cleared on the night of the concert. All waste is collected and sorted by our post event clean-up crew and plastic and other recyclable products are sent for recycling locally."
Organisers have already put in place processes to reduce waste, and are looking for other alternative sustainable solutions.
Changes include serving all food in non-plastic, recyclable containers, recycling all bottles and cans after pouring beers, RTDs and wine, and recycling all cardboard packaging.
There are no straws provided in the venue and the stadium no longer provides plastic lids with beers.
"We are also looking at reusable and compostable cup options," she said.
Eminem's 2019 RAPTURE tour set the record for the fastest ever sell-out concert at Westpac Stadium and drew in 46,474 attendees.
