Throughout 2025, Upstream facilitated a multi-stakeholder dialogue series centered around reuse service providers (RSPs). With input from partner nonprofit organizations and government staff, RSPs worked together to coalesce around a set of policies that best support the growth of their sector.

State legislation such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Systems (DRS) must focus on transitioning to a circular economy that prioritizes reuse. (Updated January 2026).

Amidst rapid advancement of packaging EPR laws, stakeholders remain hyper-fixated on recycling. Solutions that require true systemic change, like reuse, risk being regarded as side issues in the absence of strong advocacy.

Recyclable and reusable packaging can share collection points, transportation systems, and sorting and processing facilities. Here’s what that looks like.

A playbook for best-in-class Producer Responsibility Organizations for packaging EPR programs.

Upstream’s policy team shares 2024 highlights.

We sat Recycling and Reuse down together to talk out their differences—and they learned quite a bit from each other.

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.