Beyond the Bin: How Events Can Build the Infrastructure for a Reuse Economy
A Keynote from EnviroCentre’s 2026 “Connecting the Dots on Greener Events” Symposium
When it comes to scaling reuse systems and building a robust reuse economy, events are one of the best places to start.
In February, 2026, Upstream CEO Crystal Dreisbach presented the keynote address at EnviroCentre’s 2026 “Connecting the Dots on Greener Events” symposium in Ottawa, Ontario. The symposium brought together event organizers, venue managers, suppliers, and community partners for a grounded conversation about practical, achievable approaches to sustainable event design. Upstream was thrilled to put reuse front and center in these discussions — and inspire more leaders to join the movement for a reuse economy, starting with what they know best… events.
Got an event you’d like us to speak at? Reach out — we’d love to hear from you!
If Reading’s More Your Speed…
Here’s a round-up of the major points Crystal discussed in her keynote.
The Trash Bin is a Design Flaw
Overflowing garbage bins aren’t a behavior problem. They’re a system problem. We’ve been placing the fault on consumers and blaming event attendees for not sorting correctly. We’ve been adding more bins and signage and doing more customer “education.”
But the problem isn't about “caring enough.” It’s about lack of choice. Consumers are subjected to “packaging determinism” — they don’t choose a single-use cup, it’s just handed to them.
Meanwhile, events don’t create this system failure — they concentrate it. Events and venues are places where a lot of people eat or drink, and that’s actually a superpower — because concentration is where you start building alternatives.
The Infrastructure We Built (for Waste)
The waste system we built is backed by long-established, widespread, massive physical infrastructure. Every region or city of North America has landfills, transfer stations, material recovery facilities, and fleets of collection trucks.
That infrastructure is what makes disposability the default. Throwing things away isn’t natural, it’s just that disposability is seen as the path of least resistance — because it’s the only path that’s been paved.
The Infrastructure We Haven’t Built
If we want reuse at scale, we need the same level of physical infrastructure we’ve built for waste — but designed to keep materials circulating and retaining their inherent value. Reuse infrastructure includes commercial dishwashing facilities, logistics fleets for collection, return stations for dropping used containers, asset tracking technology, and a trained workforce to operate it all.
The Supply Chains to Rebuild
In the current system, single-use cups are manufactured continuously, continuously replacing their predecessors, which were used once and thrown away. And this endless cycle of production often happens in distant places. These single-use cups may be driven to a port, loaded onto a ship, travel across the ocean on a diesel container ship, unloaded at a different port onto a semi-tractor trailer, and driven to a distribution warehouse. Then there are even more steps before they get to the restaurant or event foodservice. It’s a long journey.
Alternatively, in a reuse system, assets are designed from the beginning to recirculate. The supply chain is a small loop, flowing regionally, locally, or hyperlocally. Unlike a single-use cup designed to become trash, reusable assets have inherent value that is retained beyond one use, because they’re part of a system.
Single-use Isn’t Cheap
There’s a misperception that “single-use is cheaper.” That is the argument that wins every budget meeting and every procurement decision, every time. And it’s false.
It’s only cheaper if you don’t count the costs you’re handing to everyone else: waste collection, litter cleanup, stormwater management, harms to public health, economic drain, and the disproportionate burden the “take make waste” economy puts on low-income communities and communities of color due to structural inequalities and racism. Every time an event organizer buys disposable serviceware, someone else picks up the tab.
This is why reuse is especially compelling for municipalities and communities. Materials stay local. Dollars stay local. Jobs are created that cannot be exported to distant places. A reuse system is not just about a swap-out of dishes, it’s an economic transformation.
Momentum for Reuse in Canada and Beyond
Reuse is alive and growing in Canada. Beyond well established wash hubs, there are a minimum of 11 significant reuse projects happening across Canada, many of them financially supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada as part of a national commitment to grow the industry. Binational standards for reuse are being developed by a large panel of diverse stakeholders. Groups of reuse businesses are aligning around a set of unified policy principles and speaking as an industry voice in trade alliances across continents.
Events and Venues Are Ripe for Reuse
Events and venues are ready for reuse systems for three reasons:
Controlled environments make operations simpler: Vendors can run a complete reuse cycle — serve, collect, wash, restock — within a single venue or festival footprint.
High visibility that shifts culture: Fans and visitors experience reuse as normal, convenient, even premium. And they carry that expectation home.
Contracts that justify building the infrastructure: A wash contract with a venue provides the volume and predictability a wash hub needs to be financially viable. It becomes an anchor that justifies building shared wash infrastructure in a community, increasing efficiencies and driving costs down — being accessible now for schools, small businesses, retirement communities, and cultural attractions that could never have justified the infrastructure on their own.
A Favorable Policy Environment
Local policies and reuse grant programs are expanding across North America. But the biggest shift is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) — legislation that requires packaging producers to pay for the end-of-life management of their products. Critically, some of these laws prioritize source reduction and reuse as pathways for that investment.
California’s new EPR law requires producers to pay into the Circular Action Alliance, an entity that must invest in source reduction and reuse. Upstream is working with the City of Los Angeles on a municipal financing model that leverages incoming EPR funds to build $70 million in citywide reuse infrastructure and 500 permanent jobs. It will not only capture the 2028 Olympics in LA, it will cover major event venues and the city school district. This model evolves city waste management beyond mitigation. Reuse as prevention becomes a public utility, just like trash and recycling.
Actions and Resources for Event Organizers and Venue Operators
Canadian event organizers and venue operators can make connections with the experts — including EnviroCentre and local reuse service providers — who help make switching to reuse easy.
Upstream has built a comprehensive, filterable collection of real-world reuse case studies from across North America and beyond. It’s free, searchable, and downloadable. Filter by Festivals & Events or Sports & Entertainment to see case studies from relevant sectors — with real data on disposables avoided, cost savings, break-even timelines, and the reuse models used. When stakeholders need to make the case to their boards, vendors, city councils, or sponsors, the proof points are available.
Upstream also provides these useful resources:
The Reuse Wins at Events report — the definitive environmental and economic case for reuse in food service.
The Reuse Playbook for Sports & Entertainment — a new resource for the stadium, arena, and large-venue world.
A model RFP specifically for venues and events that they can use to solicit bids for reuse service.
The Reuse Solutions Network: a community of practice, with over 1,500 activists, municipal governments, and reuse companies sharing and supporting one another.
A Final Note on False Solutions: Recycling and Compostables
Recycling is energy-intensive, resource-intensive, and fundamentally linear — even if it works perfectly. And it usually doesn’t. 84% of plastic packaging in Canada never gets recycled. Even aluminum — recycling’s best story — loses nearly 30% of its cans to landfill every single cycle.
Compostable packaging is especially important because it’s heavily marketed as the “sustainable” alternative, particularly to venues, event operators, and foodservice companies.
Unfortunately, these companies are being sold a greenwashed version of the same single-use model.
Compostables aren’t solving the infrastructure problem. They reinforce it. Every dollar spent on compostable serviceware is a dollar not invested in reuse infrastructure that would eliminate the need for single-use altogether.
The real question is not, “what’s the best material for my disposable cup?” The real question is, “why am I using a disposable cup at all?”
Venues that are currently using compostables are ready for the next step. They’ve already demonstrated that they care about environmental impact. The question is whether to keep investing in single-use with “green” marketing, or to invest in the infrastructure that makes reuse the default.
