St. Johns County

The Amp in St. Augustine adds new initiative to make venue greener

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The seats are packed, the band is playing and the fans are excited.

While the music is on, The Amp in St. Augustine is doing everything it can to cut down on plastic waste and get people involved in recycling.

"We now know less than 10% of plastics are now being recycled. Otherwise they’re being incinerated or sent over to landfills," Dianya Markovits, St. Augustine Amphitheater Public Relations Manager said.

Last year The Amp decided to do away with single-use cups.

A sold-out show at The Amp brings in around 4,800 and if each person gets a drink, that’s 4,800 plastic cups thrown out.

Times it by two drinks per person and that’s 9,000 cups.

From April 2019 to now, the Amp has saved 350,000 single plastic cups from being thrown out at the end of a show.

“They would have 16 bags of waste gathered after a show. From 16 bags, we’ve gone down to 4 bags, that’s a 75% reduction in waste,” Markovits said.

These new cups are safe and non-toxic and you can use it multiple times throughout the night.

Once you finish, you can return it or keep it.

As an incentive, patrons get a dollar off their drink refill just for using the reusable plastic cups.

The cups are cleaned and sanitized so it can be used for the venue’s next concert.

Anyone who’s been to a concert at the venue knows how hot it can get, especially during the summer.

This year they’ve stopped selling plastic water bottles. Instead, they’re now serving water out of aluminum cans because they are easier to recycle than plastic or glass.

Federal lawmakers are now trying to take reducing plastic pollution a step further.

They introduced a bill called the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act that would reduce single-use plastic products and hold companies accountable for their waste.

Over the last couple of years, the Amp has added to their go-green initiative by putting a plastic straw ban in place, adding four water refill stations, led lights and a garden in the back to reduce waste.