Policy Resources

A significant body of evidence indicates that given the choice, people would choose reusables. Here’s a resource roundup—and another side of the coin.

Learn more about The Reusies 2024.

A recap of the Reuse Solutions Network Q1 meeting on lessons learned from cup fee repeals.

How do you get customers to return to a system of reusable containers when they have been trained for years to throw them away when they are finished? Reuse businesses around the world are trying to answer this question.

Reusable LA co-leaders Alison Waliszewski and Emily Parker share insights into advocating as a community for reuse for onsite dining and other policy wins.

Definitions in policymaking matter, especially when it comes to defining reusable packaging. Here is what Upstream recommends.

A summary and resources from the Feb 15, 2024 livestream on the importance of defining “reuse” in the policy context.

How do we get producers affected by EPR packaging laws to focus on reuse? By baking funding, requirements, and incentives for reuse directly into the law. Here’s how it’s done.

Whether you are a restaurant or school curious to increase your use of reusable foodware, a government department crafting a reuse for onsite dining policy, or a community group eager to organize around less trash, this library is a one-stop resource shop.

With The Reusies in its 4th year, we’ve been reflecting and listening to our communities and networks on ways to improve the program.

2023 was a banner year for reuse policy. Join us in celebrating the highlights!

Trash pollutes city streets, waterways, parks, and natural ecosystems. It’s clear by now that disposables don’t make any sense. But really – they literally don’t make dollars or cents. Learn why this is and how Upstream is helping transform the food service sector.

Reusable mailer options for shipping your holiday gifts this season.

Reuse is the future of foodservice—partnerships and policy will get us there.

Upstream’s take on the recently published Zero Draft of the international treaty to reduce plastic pollution.

This Plastic Free July, we have a huge opportunity to make our voices heard by the EPA and bring home the message that the problem isn’t just single-use plastic but single-use itself.

Praising leaders in eliminating single-use products, The Reusies winners were announced at GreenBiz’s Circularity 23 on June 7, 2023

Upstream and many of our partners and friends in the plastic pollution and reuse space will be present at various talks and events in Paris this week and next—working to make it clear that reuse is essential to reducing plastic pollution.

Upstream’s Policy Director Sydney Harris recently returned from the WWF Plastic Policy Summit—and can report that reuse is on the move.

Forty years of data on deposit return system (DRS) laws in the U.S. demonstrate the efficacy of these systems. It’s time for a national DRS.

State legislation such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Systems (DRS) must focus on transitioning to a circular economy that prioritizes reuse.

Sydney Harris, Upstream’s interim Strategic Policy Advisor, walks us through the many reuse policy victories to celebrate from 2022.

Reuse requires rethinking how we deliver and consume. Many food businesses think switching to reusables will significantly increase labor costs, although the actual experiences do not support this view.

Closed Loop Partners released a report this week – Beyond the Plastic Bag: Sparking a Seachange for Reuse – that illustrates reuse innovations in action. And it features two finalists for The Reusies® Most Innovative Reuse Company: GOATOTE and Fill it Forward.

Even though Extended Producer Responsibility has in theory been about creating a circular economy for packaging, in practice, the only goals that have been applied in legislation so far are recycling targets. The effect has been increased recycling where EPR systems are in place, but no actual reduction in the generation of packaging waste. We can change this.

When it comes to changing something as entrenched as the throw-away culture, the real changemakers are local community members and their elected officials – people who are passionate about saving the planet and ready to innovate new approaches.

With big brands signaling support for extended producer responsibility (EPR), deposit-return systems (DRS), and – most recently – reuse/refill, opportunities have opened up to pass policies and build infrastructure to transform how we consume products. But with these commitments come competing ideas around vision, strategies and tactics – and about which policies should come first, and which should follow.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Indisposable Podcast host Brooking Gatewood presents a roundup of her favorite interviews with some of the many innovative, visionary, women-identified Solutioneers driving the Reuse Movement forward.

In the last month, some BIG brands who have been major players in the throw-away economy made historic announcements about their goals to move to reuse. We recognize that creating financial incentives for returning the packaging will be critical for ensuring that the reusable packaging doesn’t wind up in the garbage or environment.

With fans returning to sporting arenas and concert-goers celebrating the return of music festivals, sustainability issues at events and venues are coming back into focus - specifically, the ever-present disposable plastic cup. Many attempts at solutions have been introduced, from bioplastic to reuse systems and now single-use aluminum cups. But there has been no clear scientific consensus as to which options have the greatest environmental impact and which options have the least - until now.