We’re excited to bring you into the conversation about an updated direction for Upstream and what we’re working to accomplish in the world.

Reuse requires rethinking how we deliver and consume. Many food businesses think switching to reusables will significantly increase labor costs, although the actual experiences do not support this view.

There’s a lot of single-use waste that comes into our homes. But there are concrete steps we can take to reduce it.

When it comes to changing something as entrenched as the throw-away culture, the real changemakers are local community members and their elected officials – people who are passionate about saving the planet and ready to innovate new approaches.

Studies consistently show that reusable foodware has significantly less environmental impacts than their single-use counterparts and can be a key strategy for reducing overall emissions. Learn more about how Climate Action Plans and consumption-based emissions inventories (CBEIs) tie to reuse and help move the needle on climate action.

On Wednesday, representatives from 175 nations agreed to draft a global treaty that would start to tackle the exponentially growing amount of plastic pollution that we’re facing – essentially a Paris Agreement for plastics.

After launching a few reuse coalitions ourselves (and supporting others to do the same), we offer the following best practices to help you think about what might work best in your community.

Reuse Wins, a new report from Upstream, shows how a new reuse economy is emerging to replace the use of single-use products in food service. The key findings in the report draw from life-cycle studies that compare the environmental impacts of disposables versus reusables, and project the potential cost savings to business and local government from transitioning to a new reuse economy.

The pressure to save the world amidst the evolving climate crisis gets bigger by the minute, and it can be daunting and disheartening. In light of Mental Health Awareness Month, this brought me to a question that anyone facing such heavy circumstances, at any moment, needs to know the answer to: How can I practice mental self care when I start to feel small and dejected?