Revellers to drink from cans at Cologne festival
Carnival revellers in Cologne will be drinking from cans after the town council put a ban on glass.
The town council has responded after many carnival revellers repeatedly stepped or fell into shards of glass. They now consider the risk of injury posed by glass shards too high after the streets were strewn with empty glass bottles and splinters in previous years.
As an alternative the can mobile, which is a trailer turned into a fridge, will exclusively offer revellers beverages in cans. The beverage can is unbreakable, much more lightweight than a glass bottle and comes freshly cooled from the can mobile.
The Cologne based operator of the can mobile sells a variety of beverages including the Kölsch brand as well as Karlsberg Mixery and Canco Cocktails in cans during the carnival season.
The six fridges of the can mobile hold a total of 1,500 beverage cans.
“We are present at various sites in the old part of the town of Cologne and supply carnival revellers with cooled beverages from cans,” says Klaus Beste of the Cologne based company Die Dose.
The decision to ban the use of glass during the carnival season was made in 2010. Beverage cans pose no risk of injury and provide a good alternative.
Breweries’ sales are approximately one third higher during the carnival week than during the remainder of the year. Apart from Kölsch, Karlsberg Mixery and other well-known beer brands, a number of other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are now offered in cans. The most recent trend is cocktails in beverage cans, with one company from the Rhineland – canco Beverages – selling the brands Mai Tai, Sex on the Beach and Piña Colada in cans.
Disposal of the cans, which have a 25-cent deposit on them, is also no problem. They can be returned for recycling through reverse-vending machines for one-way packaging in supermarkets. The can mobile also takes back sold cans. In Germany, 95% of beverage cans are recycled and this is another reason for carnival revellers to give preference to beverage cans in future.
