At the end of March, more than 100 core members from dozens of countries convened for the first global meeting of the BFFP movement since before the pandemic. Here are some key takeaways.

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.

The beverage sector is one of the ripest sectors for reuse. Leaving out closed systems like reuse for on-site dining, more beverage reuse/refill systems operate at scale than all other open systems.

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.

Walk through the history – and future – of bottle bills (aka deposit-refund systems) and explore how bottle bills were used in the past and what caused the shift from this reuse–refill economic model to the modern-era throw-away system.