By Upstream Policy Director Sydney Harris

Hi—I’m Sydney Harris, Upstream’s Policy Director, and I recently attended the WWF Plastic Policy Summit in Washington, DC. The Summit brought together over 200 attendees, split approximately in thirds between corporate partners, NGO partners, and federal, state, and local policymakers. It was an engaging and inspiring event, with a heartening focus on solutions, rather than defining the problem (because we all know what that is already). Here are three key takeaways I gathered from attending the Summit. 

One: there is a lot of opportunity at the Federal level

The Biden/Harris Administration is currently working on a national strategy to build a “circular economy for all” that includes reuse. One of the first steps in this process was the publication of EPA’s national recycling strategy in 2021, but the federal government recognized that recycling alone won’t get us where we need to go. Several agencies and federal advisors (including NOAA, EPA, White House Plastics Advisor Jonathan Black, and the National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi) spoke about actions being planned behind the scenes to accelerate solutions to plastic pollution, including alluding to possible reuse commitments such as procurement policies that can drive market changes. We are staying tuned!

Two: scale and standards are key to impact

Thom Almeida of the World Economic Forum moderated a fabulous breakout session on Scaling Reuse,  featuring several speakers who are actively working on reuse implementation: Crystal Dreisbach of Don’t Waste Durham and GreenToGo; Clemence Schmid of Loop/Terracycle; and Amy Larkin of PR3. They each provided a brief overview of their work and discussed how we can truly scale reuse beyond individual community-level initiatives and pilots. All three panelists agreed that  that shared infrastructure is the missing link in allowing reuse to scale. Amy proposed that standards are key to enabling shared infrastructure. When asked about the biggest barriers to scaling reuse, Clemence emphasized that customer hesitation is NOT the issue — customers are ready for reusable packaging and companies should not be afraid to go there! 

(You can learn more about reuse infrastructure in Upstream’s piece Infrastructure to scale the New Reuse Economy and about standards on Indisposable Live: How design standards and Guidelines can help reuse scale).

Three: Grow reuse, grow inspiration

Reuse is increasingly part of the policy conversation across EPR, DRS, and other tools— including at the global scale, with the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations underway. But we need more stories about how reuse works and examples of reuse successes. Policymakers need help envisioning what is possible in the new reuse economy so they can wrap their heads around how best to write policy that catalyzes reuse. This kind of solutions storytelling is close to Upstream’s heart: it’s why we started The Reusies, created the Reuse Service Business Directory, and created The Indisposable Podcast and Indisposable Live. Spread these resources in your community, and spread the good word about Reuse! 

Bonus points for bottle bills

Post-summit I attended a national Bottle Bill lobby day event hosted by NSAC, where we met with the staff of US Senators from across the country to discuss the concept of a national Deposit Return System. The biggest takeaway here is that there is energy and enthusiasm for a national bottle bill! This will be one of the biggest pieces to be broken out of the original Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (though with updates to the language). 

Sen. Merkley (D, OR) is currently working on a draft bill—with help from Upstream—which will hopefully be introduced soon with co-sponsors from across the political spectrum. Our aim is for this bill to align with our policy principles, including targets and incentives for reuse. And we developed a fact sheet you can download here that outlines how DRS can accelerate reuse. 

All in all, momentum is growing at the national level to encourage reuse, and Upstream and our partners are ready to seize this moment.