A message from Upstream CEO, Crystal Dreisbach, after the midterm elections
Dear Friends,
I've been thinking about what actually brings us together. Here's my big claim: reuse systems touch almost everything we care about.
I'll admit it, I'm biased. I've been building reuse systems for 16 years. So let me tell you what I mean.
Whatever our politics, most of us want the same things. Good jobs that stay in our communities. A cost of living families can manage. Thriving local businesses. Well-spent taxpayer dollars. Clean land, air, and water for our kids and grandkids. And dependable supply chains so that one disruption on the other side of the world doesn’t leave the shelves at our local market empty.
I believe reuse helps with all of them, and it starts with something simple: washing stuff. A café, school, or stadium hands you a durable cup or container. You drop it in a return bin, a local service washes it, and it goes back into use hundreds of times. Think of the milkman, but for takeout cups, containers, and shipping crates.
There are now 69 commercial wash hubs doing this work across the U.S. and Canada. Each one is a local business with jobs that can’t be shipped overseas. And every cup that comes back is one less thing a business has to buy, a town has to haul to the landfill, or we have to ship in from far away.
One clean dish is a small act. Multiply it by millions, every day, and it’s an economic transformation.
So what do last week's elections mean for this economic transformation in 2027?
Quite a lot. The rules that make reuse possible, like laws that make packaging producers responsible for what they put into the world, are decided almost entirely in state capitols. On November 3, six governorships changed hands and control shifted in legislative chambers across several states. Here in North Carolina, we have new state leadership, something we haven't seen since 2010, which opens a more workable path for reuse in my home state.
Seven states already have these packaging laws on the books, and lawmakers in 18 states considered them this year. All 50 U.S. state legislatures are scheduled to hold regular legislative sessions in 2027 (which is not always the case). The map is opening in ways that make reuse policy, and the systems behind it, possible in more places than ever.
In January, California launches the biggest packaging law in U.S. history: by 2032, companies must cut single-use plastic packaging by 25%, with a big share coming from reuse and refill, and they’ll put $5 billion toward stopping plastic pollution. That opens the door for reuse projects that have been waiting for the funding and the mandate to get off the ground. Upstream is exploring projects in major cities that could tap these new resources to launch reuse at citywide scale, the kind of system millions of people could use every day.
And you’ll be able to see it for yourself. In 2027, the Grand Canyon National Park reuse system Upstream is orchestrating will launch as the largest reusable foodware system in the country, right where 5 million visitors a year can experience it. If reuse can work at one of America’s most visited national parks, it can work anywhere.
We have real momentum right now, and I’d love to hear from you. Where would you most like to see reuse show up in your community? Just comment below. I read every response.
Thank you for helping turn one clean dish into millions.
With gratitude,
Crystal Dreisbach
CEO, Upstream
P.S. 2027 is shaping up to be the biggest year yet for reuse, from statehouses to the Grand Canyon. If you’d like to help Upstream walk in ready, you can make a gift here.
