LOS ANGELES — On game nights at Crypto.com Arena, the stars are on the court — ice or stage. But after the lights go down and the crowds file out, another kind of performance begins — this one deep below the arena, away from the spotlight.
That’s where Richard Garcia goes to work.
“We sort through a lot of cups at night,” said Garcia, part of the arena’s operations crew.
His job: collecting, sorting and helping to repurpose the thousands of reusable cups fans leave behind. It’s part of a pioneering initiative that’s quietly transforming how large-scale venues handle waste.
Crypto.com Arena is now the first major sports and entertainment venue in the country to fully transition to reusable drinkware. The familiar yellow bins now lining the concourse aren’t just recycling containers — they’re a key part of a sustainability system designed to keep plastic out of landfills.
“What I think we do is very important,” Garcia said.
The results speak for themselves. Since launching the program, the arena has already diverted hundreds of thousands of single-use cups from landfills — and that number is expected to grow significantly by the end of 2025.
“We’re confident we’ll pass that number by a lot in 2025,” said Nelson Ventress, the arena’s sustainability program manager. “And fans are really buying into it. They love these cups, and they’re becoming part of the process.”
The reusable cup system is one part of a broader push by AEG, which operates the arena that is home to the Lakers, Kings and Sparks. As the WNBA season kicks off and fans return for summer events, the goal is to keep sustainability front of mind.
“With the right signage, with the right bins, with the right sorting—we incorporate all the fans to help us with our mission to recycle, to reuse,” said Ignacio Guerra, senior vice president of operations at the arena.
Back in the sorting room, Garcia says the work may not come with applause — but it does come with purpose.
“If I didn’t care about what I was doing, I’d be gone already,” he said. “I love it.”
And that quiet commitment — cup by cup — may just be what keeps Crypto.com Arena on the cutting edge of sustainability, long after the final whistle sounds.