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All the latest ideas and news from Upstream’s thought leaders and partners.
The New Reuse Economy: The future of food service is reusable
Emerging trends in foodservice have the potential to completely disrupt our current disposable food-service paradigm and replace it with something better.
3 Takeaways from Circularity 22
Upstream CEO Matt Prindiville just returned from GreenBiz’s Circularity Conference. It was a sold-out 3 day affair with more than a thousand sustainability professionals from virtually every consumer brand, plus representatives from the rest of their value chain. Here are three valuable takeaways from the conference.
Infrastructure to Scale the New Reuse Economy
Reuse services require collection from the consumer, reverse logistics, washing and sanitizing, refilling and/or restocking. Because of the challenges and costs associated for individual companies going it alone, it’s important for businesses to be able to operate on platforms that can serve many companies at the same time.
Women who power the Reuse Movement
In honor of Women’s History Month, Indisposable Podcast host Brooking Gatewood presents a roundup of her favorite interviews with some of the many innovative, visionary, women-identified Solutioneers driving the Reuse Movement forward.
PepsiCo and Starbucks announce goals for reuse
In the last month, some BIG brands who have been major players in the throw-away economy made historic announcements about their goals to move to reuse. We recognize that creating financial incentives for returning the packaging will be critical for ensuring that the reusable packaging doesn’t wind up in the garbage or environment.
Eliminating single-use cups at events
With fans returning to sporting arenas and concert-goers celebrating the return of music festivals, sustainability issues at events and venues are coming back into focus - specifically, the ever-present disposable plastic cup. Many attempts at solutions have been introduced, from bioplastic to reuse systems and now single-use aluminum cups. But there has been no clear scientific consensus as to which options have the greatest environmental impact and which options have the least - until now.
Bringing Reuse Solutions for On–Site Dining into Reach
Trash pollutes city streets, waterways, parks, and natural ecosystems – all at a cost to people and the planet. It’s clear by now that disposables don’t make any sense. But really – they literally don’t make dollars or cents. Learn why this is and how Upstream is helping transform the food service sector from a disposable nightmare to a real and reusable future.
Coca Cola pledges to serve 25% of beverages in reusables by 2030
Coca Cola announced their commitment to serve 25% of their beverages in reusable packaging by 2030. Learn what this means for reusables in consumer brands and join us in commending their commitment to growing a circular economy for packaging that prioritizes “reduce and reuse” first – over recycling.
How Bottle Bills Reduce Waste and Support the Circular Economy
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.