What does it take to make reuse an everyday reality in America?
Insights and impact from the nation’s first citywide program to offer reusable to-go cups to every customer with no deposits or fees.
Bold Initiative
For three months in 2024, 30 restaurants in the City of Petaluma, CA, swapped their single-use cups for to-go reusable cups that could be returned anywhere in town via a network of over 60 local return bins. With no deposits, penalties or sign-up required, the system was designed to be more accessible and inclusive than existing reuse models, which often come with high financial or geographical barriers to participation.
Unprecedented Partnership
Led by the NextGen Consortium, which is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project is a bold initiative to drive reuse and displace hundreds of thousands of single-use cups. The project is the result of extensive collaboration between the NextGen Consortium, the City of Petaluma, national brands, local businesses, NGOs and operational partners.
Major Milestone
This first-in-the-nation program achieved a major milestone with returns of the reusable purple cups that exceeded the environmental break-even point — meaning that enough of the program’s purple cups were successfully returned for the reuse system to produce environmental benefits when compared with a single-use alternative.
Join Us
We’re inviting brands, retailers, cities and innovators from all sectors to join our upcoming reuse activations in cities across the U.S. These activations will begin in 2026 in strategic markets, focusing on reducing the operational costs of reuse, and priming communities for reuse as a norm. Get in touch: nextgen@closedlooppartners.com.
About Us
Center for the Circular Economy
The Center for the Circular Economy, the managing partner of the NextGen Consortium, is the innovation arm of Closed Loop Partners, a firm at the forefront of building the circular economy. Entrusted by the world's most influential organizations to solve their most sticky material challenges, the Center’s expertise spans circularity across the full life cycle of materials, connecting upstream innovation to downstream recovery infrastructure and end markets. We partner with organizations at every stage of their journey to realize their circularity goals, innovating, testing and scaling solutions to address systems challenges and advance a circular economy.
NextGen Consortium
The NextGen Consortium, managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, is a multi-year consortium that addresses single-use foodservice packaging waste by advancing the design, commercialization and recovery of sustainable foodservice packaging alternatives. The Consortium brings leading brands, industry experts and innovators together to reimagine foodservice packaging, increase access to recycling and accelerate sustainable and circular solutions to reduce waste. Starbucks and McDonald’s are the founding partners of the Consortium, with The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo as sector lead partners. Peet’s Coffee, with its parent company JDE Peet’s, Wendy’s, Yum! Brands, Delta Air Lines and Toast are supporting partners. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the environmental advisory partner.
Local Partners
Participating Locations
