Go plastic

Should Perth ban glass in all pubs and clubs? Well perhaps not. However with 67 glass attacks in WA this year it would be a good idea to take a step in the right direction.

It's easy to pick those places that could use a change to plastic cups from glasses. We've all been there at one time or another. When you go to a pub or club and the floor is half covered in broken glass. These are the pubs and clubs that the customers aren't as concerned with the slight flavour difference that a plastic cup may make to a cocktail. At these places its about quantity not quality. With this mindset it's clear that these are the people who don't need a glass. In a scenario like this there are many fights. This last year Northbridge had the most glass attacks of any other suburb (the West Australian, 2010). Perhaps we can start there. Why put a glass in the hand of an idiot who wants to fight when you don't have to. Its clear that banning glass won't put a stop the the problem. There will always be those drunken idiots who what to start a fight for the sake of fighting and unfortunately we can't see who they are from the start of the evening before the attacks happen, but banning the glass can't hurt.

I believe that its not necessary to ban glass in every pub and club in Perth. There are the nice cocktail bars and wine bars that would suffer for changing their glass wear over to plastic and in these places there isn't much of an issue with the glass. This is were people go to enjoy a drink not to binge. By targeting specific problem clubs and pubs it can dramatically change the atmosphere of a night out. It is a major safety problem to go out on a fun night and find that the dance floor is covered in glass. There is a tripping and falling issue and from my personal experience people don't tend to think to wear shoes that protect them against glass, usually they are for appearance purposes so big pieces of glass can find its way into feet. We clearly need to give some responsibility to the clubs who don't clean up this mess adequately and to the individual who should learn to hold on to their glass but at the end of the day these things do happen so why not avoid it?

Ultimately, banning glass probably won't make a significant change to the number of assaults in Perth but from what I can see, a small difference is better than no difference at all.