Starbucks, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Lead Brands Launching First City-Wide Reuse System | Sustainable Brands (2024)

The collaboration, led by the NextGen Consortium, makes reusable cups thedefault option in over 30 national and local restaurants across the City ofPetaluma, California.

Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Peet’s Coffee, Yum!Brands, and other global and local brands and restaurants are partnering inThe Petaluma Reusable Cup Project — an unprecedented collaboration to drivereuse.

Starting August 5, more than 30 restaurants in the City of Petaluma,California will swap their single-use to-go cups for reusable cups for allcustomers at no cost; and widespread return points will also be available acrossthe city. As the first initiative of its kind that makes reusable to-go cups thedefault option across multiple restaurants in a US city, the program marks asignificant milestone for reuse — with the opportunity to drive more customersto reuse and displace waste from hundreds of thousands of single-use cups.

The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project is focused on supporting customers to createreturn habits — key to the success of reuse schemes. The city-wide initiative isa critical step forward to catalyze and scale reuse systems, building on half adecade of work by the NextGenConsortium— a collaboration managed by the Center for the Circular Economy at ClosedLoop Partners, in partnership with manyglobal foodservice brands.

The mix of large, national chains; local, independent restaurants; conveniencestores, community hubs and public locations gives this initiative distinctpotential in shaping consumer habits and cultural norms. More than 30 Petalumarestaurants will participate in the initiative — including Starbucks andlicensed Starbucks cafés in Target and Safeway stores; Peet’s Coffee;KFC and Yum!’s Habit Burger Grill; Dunkin’, and many local cafés andrestaurants. The initiative was made possible through extensive public-privatecollaboration, with support and engagement from theCity ofPetaluma, Zero WasteSonoma, Recology, community groups and local businesses.

“It takes an entire community to build the future of reuse that we want to see,”says MichaelKobori, chiefsustainability officer at Starbucks — which in January became the first UScoffee retailer to accept reusable and personal cupsnationwide.“Our environmental promise is core to our business and that’s why we’re workingtoward a future vision of every Starbucks beverage served in a reusable cup.Together with fellow foodservice brands, local stores and communitystakeholders, we’re leading this initiative to help further unlock behaviorchange toward reusables — making it easy for our customers, and any customer,to choose to reuse and reduce waste.”

Across the US, 50 billionsingle-usecups arepurchased and disposed of each year. Most of these cups are provided in arestaurant and disposed of at home, work or school — with an average lifespan ofless than one hour before going to waste, according to the Center for theCircular Economy’s research. While reuse is growing quickly, use of personalcups and existing takeaway reusable-cup systems still face low adoption or lowreturns. For reuse to scaleresponsibly,it’s imperative to create an easy and enjoyable consumer experience that makesit easy for customers to remember to bring their own containers or to return onethat was given to them.

“To create a world without packaging waste, we need to ensure that foodpackaging reuse systems are scaled in a way that creates a positiveenvironmental impact––meeting the current needs of people while driving acultural shift toward reuse,” says KateDaly, Managing Director and Head of theCenter for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “By testing reuseacross an entire city in partnership with key stakeholders from the communityand industry, we can scale reuse collaboratively through thoughtfulexperimentation — building a future where reuse is the norm.”

Petaluma, California — located in the northern San Francisco Bay Area —was selected for the initiative for many reasons. In this region, businesses andconsumers are receptive to adopting reuse, given the policy environmentpromoting the phase-out of non-recyclable, single-use packaging. The city alsoparticipated in a returnable-cuppilotat participating Starbucks locations in 2023. The size and dense layout ofdowntown Petaluma — with its tight cluster of restaurants and local shops withinwalking distance, and proximity to suburban and rural areas — creates the rightconditions for testing a reuse system for to-go cups. Collaboration with localstakeholders has helped adapt the initiative to local policy and infrastructure,identify optimal return points across the city and engage the broader community.

“The City of Petaluma is laying the groundwork to make cup reuse not only anoption, but the default,” says Mayor KevinMcDonnell. “We have anamazing, engaged community; and we look forward to assisting the success of thisprogram, alongside our local restaurants and participating global brands thatservice our community.”

"Imagine a neighborhood where all to-go cups are reusable, and returning thesecups required no extra steps. By making reusable cups as convenient andaccessible as single use, we can offer an alternative for residents when theyforget to bring their own cups with them,” says LeslieLukacs, Executive Directorof Zero Waste Sonoma — the county in whichPetaluma sits. “Universal accessibility creates the foundation for a culturalshift towards reuse.”

The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project will install more than 60 cup-return binsacross Petaluma. After use and return, the reusable cups will be collected,washed and recirculated for future uses by participating businesses andcustomers. Muuse — maker of a smart reusable-cup system thatwon the NextGen CupChallengein 2019 and went on to participate in the NextGen Circular BusinessAccelerator —was selected by the NextGen Consortium to manage all servicing and reverselogistics for the initiative.

“Transitioning to returnable packaging systems is a critical part of reducingsingle-use packaging waste, and we need to focus on supporting the operationsbehind it. These systems must be thoughtfully and responsibly implemented toensure we are minimizing our impact of creating more waste in the process,” saysMuuse COO & co-founder Brittany Gamez.“It is through initiatives like this that we can identify what is needed tooperationalize shared systems at this level and inform how reuse is implementedat scale.”

The Petaluma initiative, which runs until November, will collect baseline datathat measures customer participation and the environmental impact of makingreusablesthe default choice for customers — testing whether the model is operationallyviable for scale. Data from the initiative can be leveraged by businesses andregulators to support them as they design new reuse systems and draftwell-informed packaging regulations.

Since 2018, the NextGen Consortium, its brand partners and the Center for theCircular Economy ecosystem have been at the forefront of the reuse movement. In2019 and 2020, the NextGen Consortium launched trials inthe San Francisco Bay Area to understand how reusable cup programs might operatesimultaneously across multiple restaurants, leading to a foundational reusereport.The Center for the Circular Economy’s work to advance reuse also extends beyondthe cup. In 2023, its Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag released aplaybookfor enabling near-term reductions in single-use plastic bags that can beimplemented by retailers of any size — in partnership with CVS Health,Target, Walmart and other leading retailers.

The NextGen Consortium says it will continue its work and collaboration withstakeholders from across the reuse value chain, from innovators and activists toglobal brands and policymakers, to effectively scale reusesystemsthat eliminate industry waste.