The NextGen Consortium, led by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, with partners including Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Yum! Brands and other global businesses released groundbreaking results聽from the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project, the first initiative聽to catalyze reuse across an entire U.S. city.
The report, Making Reuse an Everyday Reality: Insights and Impact from the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project, reveals a major milestone for the reuse movement: enough of the project’s purple cups were successfully returned for the reuse system to produce environmental benefits when compared with a single-use alternative. Delivering a positive environmental outcome on this scale is particularly significant because the program was designed to automatically serve every customer ordering a to-go beverage with a reusable cup, across a citywide network.
This unprecedented collaboration in Petaluma set out to address accessibility and inclusivity challenges that typically restrict the ability of reuse programs to deliver impact. Throughout the duration of the three-month project, 30 businesses in Petaluma鈥撯�揻rom national brands to local restaurants鈥撯�搒witched out single-use cups for reusable alternatives in unison, at no cost to the customer. Local consumers responded, returning cups from day one, with returns climbing rapidly in the first few weeks and over 220,000 cups returned throughout the program.
The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project was launched at a critical time, amidst growing regulatory, consumer and climate pressures on single-use packaging waste. Advancing reuse has been a focus for the NextGen Consortium, as identifying alternatives to single-use packaging becomes a top priority for brands and cities seeking to reduce waste. In the U.S., 50 billion single-use cups聽are purchased and disposed of each year, and many of these materials are wasted in landfills.
“The best part was that this project got the whole community involved. Deep public-private partnerships, including commerce and non-profits collaborating, demonstrated that it is possible to launch an inclusive and accessible reuse system that supported our residents. People got into it, and it was the talk of the town,” said Mayor Kevin McDonnell of the City of Petaluma. “We are thrilled to be a part of this important work to scale reuse systems that keep our communities clean and support positive environmental outcomes.”
“The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project demonstrated an ambitious, innovative vision of reuse as an everyday reality, paving the way for the Consortium to scale reuse in California and other markets,鈥澛爏aid Carolina Lobel, Senior Director at the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “Together, we can scale the solutions that have been proven to work and solve the current open challenges identified in the聽Petaluma project.”
The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project builds on over half a decade of work to advance reuse by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. While there is still work ahead to increase return rates, given variability across participating businesses, the groundbreaking results achieved mark an important milestone in catalyzing and scaling reuse systems. The Consortium invites brands, retailers, cities and innovators from all sectors to join upcoming reuse activations in cities across the U.S.鈥撯�搈aking critical strides to building a waste-free world.