The Coca-Cola Company, Starbucks, PepsiCo and others served reusable takeaway cups as the default in a Closed Loop Partners trial and apparently achieved a 51% return rate, suggesting environmental benefits for mandatory reuse.
Statistics from Waste Advantage indicate that 50 billion single-use cups are bought and disposed of across the United States every year, with many ending up in landfills. These are largely believed to come from restaurants and remain in use for less than an hour before becoming waste.
In response, the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project was launched by the NextGen Consortium last summer. Described as the first initiative to ‘catalyze’ a city-wide reuse scheme in America, it saw over thirty restaurants in the City of Petaluma default to serving consumers in reusable to-go cups at no extra cost.
Such measures were hoped to increase the accessibility and inclusivity of reusable packaging solutions, instill reuse habits among consumers, and eliminate ‘hundreds of thousands’ of single-use cups.
Now the Making Reuse an Everyday Reality: Insights and Impacts from the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project report asserts that enough of the project’s purple cups were successfully returned to achieve environmental benefits compared to single-use alternatives.
Reportedly, over 220,000 cups were returned across the twelve-week programme, with ‘minimal’ contamination found in the return bins. Of the unreturned cups, 24,000 were said to be recovered from recycling streams by a local recycler, while ‘many’ respondents in a focus group admitted to keeping cups to be reused at home.
However, Closed Loop Partners says that the project achieved a 51% return rate, exceeding the 40-50% system breakeven point (established based on varying splits of hot and cold cup types). According to the report, this outcome suggests that reuse is more environmentally beneficial than single-use.
Additionally, a post-opinion poll found that 80% of participants wanted the project to continue in Petaluma, while one quarter of inbound emails to the project asked for the project to be expanded regionally or nationally.
“The best part was that this project got the whole community involved,” said Mayor Kevin McDonnell of the City of Petaluma. “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.
“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,” added Carolina Lobel, senior director of 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 Petaluma project.”
Closed Loop Partners acknowledges that the variation between participating businesses leaves more work to be done in pursuit of increased return rates, yet it considers the project ‘an important milestone’ in launching and scaling reuse systems. It encourages brands, retailers, cities, and innovators across the United States to participate in similar reuse activations in pursuit of zero waste.
A similar initiative has kicked off in the United Kingdom, with Costa Coffee, Caffè Nero, and Burger King among the big brands participating in Hubbub and Reposit’s Borrow Cup project. For a £1 deposit, consumers can purchase their drinks in a reusable cup and receive a discount or extra loyalty rewards; the cups can be used again, swapped for a clean cup in a future purchase, exchanged for a refunded deposit at the till, or for a £1 voucher at a return point.
Meanwhile, retailers Albert Heijn, Aldi, Carrefour, Colruyt, Delhaize, and Lidl will join forces with the Reusable Packaging Coalition to pilot reusable mushroom packaging in Mechelen, Belgium later this year. Aiming to bridge the ‘gap between ambition and action’, the initiative is set to align with the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation’s ban on single-use plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables under one and a half kilograms in weight.
In another sector, DPD Germany is working with hey circle to implement reusable shipping boxes and bags into its parcel deliveries. These solutions are expected to last for fifty cycles and therefore cut down on single-use waste, but are also anticipated to offer improved protective properties compared to conventional shipment packaging.
If you liked this story, you might also enjoy:
Reuse vs. single use – which is better for the environment?
Sustainable Innovation Report 2025: Current trends and future priorities
What can the world learn from South Korea’s world-leading performance in plastics circularity?
No comments yet