This Plastic Free July, we have a huge opportunity to make our voices heard by the EPA and bring home the message that the problem isn’t just single-use plastic but single-use itself.

Praising leaders in eliminating single-use products, The Reusies winners were announced at GreenBiz’s Circularity 23 on June 7, 2023

Upstream and many of our partners and friends in the plastic pollution and reuse space will be present at various talks and events in Paris this week and next—working to make it clear that reuse is essential to reducing plastic pollution.

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.

Sydney Harris, Upstream’s interim Strategic Policy Advisor, walks us through the many reuse policy victories to celebrate from 2022.

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.

Closed Loop Partners released a report this week – Beyond the Plastic Bag: Sparking a Seachange for Reuse – that illustrates reuse innovations in action. And it features two finalists for The Reusies® Most Innovative Reuse Company: GOATOTE and Fill it Forward.

Even though Extended Producer Responsibility has in theory been about creating a circular economy for packaging, in practice, the only goals that have been applied in legislation so far are recycling targets. The effect has been increased recycling where EPR systems are in place, but no actual reduction in the generation of packaging waste. We can change this.