CASE STUDY:
Moomba 2026
Serves record 28,000 meals in reusable dishes.
How bettercup's reusable food dishes kept 465kg of waste from landfill at Australia's largest community festival.
Moomba Festival has been running since 1955 and is a beloved, five-day annual event in the Melbourne community over Labour Day weekend in March.
Attracting over 1 million attendees each year, it’s a vibrant celebration of culture, art, and community spirit, and is Australia’s largest free community festival.
Results of Moomba Festival’s Reuse Project.
84%
return rate
465kg
waste eliminated
28,000
meals served
9,000
dishes washed on site
Want to dig into the detail? Get the full case study here.
Photo courtesy of Moomba Festival | @moombafestival.
Moomba's compostable food containers were failing sustainability.
Single-use containers generated an estimated 1,440kg of waste each year at Moomba Festival alone.
Although food vendors use compostable packaging, it isn’t accepted in the organics waste stream because it requires higher heat than food waste to break down, increasing cost and energy use. Some compostable packaging is mislabelled and does not break down, ruining tonnes of organic material set to become fertiliser.
A reusable dish system was introduced at Moomba 2026 in order to reduce single-use waste generated by food containers.
A New Approach with Bettercup.
How the reusable food dish system worked:
PRODUCT QUANTITY & WASHING.
18,900 reusable dishes were supplied to the event. An on site wash station showcased the reusable system, with staff from Green My Plate collecting dirty dishes, washing and distributing clean dishes back to the food vendors. The remainder of washing was completed post-event at bettercup HQ.
VENDOR CO-ORDINATION.
Food vendors within the Alexandra Gardens catering area used reusable dishes. They were charged the same price as the cost of a single-use food container. Green My Plate distributed dishes to vendors and managed on site washing, collections, and patron education.
REUSABLE RETURNS.
35 reusables bins with pink bin covers positioned alongside other bins, where attendees could return the dishes once they were finished eating. A further 7 bins were added in nearby thoroughfares to capture dishes that had been walked outside of the main catering area.
CLEANERS.
Event cleaners sorted the general waste and recycling bins, retrieving reusable food dishes and taking them to the wash station. The bright pink food dishes helped cleaners easily spot dishes that had been put in the incorrect bins.
465kg of waste diverted = 70 wheelie bins worth of waste!
Attendee Feedback.
“... I also really loved the Pink container idea, brilliant and kept the place clean.”
“Very impressed with availability of drinking water, and loved the
bright pink reusable serving ware.”
“..I loved that some places had the reusable pink containers that
staff were collecting to reuse.”
Want to see further insights and hear what’s next for City of Melbourne and Moomba?
Return rates of 84% in 2026 shows high engagement with the the reuse system.
As attendees become used to the reusable system, reusable dish return rates will improve. In future, Moomba can expect to achieve return rates above 90%.
