Big brands create regional circular economy in plastic cups

Americans buy and throw away around 50 billion single-use cups annually. Most of these cups have a lifespan of less than an hour between when their users purchase them at a coffee shop and throw them away. Now American companies that contribute to the problem, including Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Peet’s Coffee, and Yum! Brands, are launching a new initiative in Petaluma, a medium-sized city near San Francisco in California, to create a new circular economy.

As a July 9 press release explained, investment firm and circular economy advocacy organization Close Loop Partners organized the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project as part of its NextGen Consortium, a group of retail and other brands seeking to recycle and reuse more products, reduce the amount of virgin materials extracted from the planet, and curb greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

The first-of-its-kind project aims to make reusable cups the standard option at 30 fast food and casual restaurants and coffee shops throughout Petaluma. Return points where the cups can be discarded cleanly and recycled will be established throughout the city of around 60,000. Organizers hope to prevent hundreds of thousands of single-use paper and plastic cups from going to waste streams.

Americans’ habits needed to change, said Starbucks Chief Sustainability Officer Michael Kobori.

"It takes an entire community to build the future of reuse that we want to see," Kobori said. "Together with fellow foodservice brands, local stores, and community stakeholders, we're leading this initiative to help further unlock behavior change toward reusables, making it easy for our customers, and any customer, to choose to reuse and reduce waste." ce/jd