And Reflecting on Recent Travels

By Sydney Harris, Upstream Policy Director

Recently, I flew home from NYC (out of LaGuardia), where I stopped at Starbucks to ask for some hot water in my reusable thermos before boarding my plane. Despite having a "choose to reuse" sign advertising a discount for customers who bring in a clean reusable cup/mug right at the cash register, the barista proceeded to fill up doubled-up disposable cups with hot water for me to pour into my thermos, saying staff were told they aren't allowed to bring customer cups behind the counter. She even insisted on giving me a lid and a paper sleeve. UGH!

Recently while catching up on emails, I spotted this recent article from GreenBiz: 6 things Starbucks learned from its reusable cup experiments. The language they use stands out to me:

“We’re talking about motivating behavior changes to the masses and not to the people who are passionate about this stuff,” said Chris McFarlane, global responsibility adviser for waste and circularity at Starbucks.

Unfortunately, we continue to hear language like this all the time in our conversations with big brands and corporations. Many of them are still operating on the belief that reuse is not viable unless customers change their behavior—when we know that in reality the way to scale reuse is to make it the default by adapting systems to existing behaviors.

I believe we will get there. This is a big part of why Upstream acts as a convener to engage corporations and try to reshape their perceptions—while also working directly on policy to ensure they have to act. Fortunately, we are seeing the needle begin to move. There is more policy momentum than ever in the US and Canada aimed at catalyzing and requiring reuse, in large part thanks to an ever growing community of NGOs, entrepreneurs, local organizations, community leaders, and governments working hard on these issues every day.

And meanwhile, consumer brands are repeatedly being exposed to messaging that illustrates the need for them to make reuse the default—including through our own Reuse Refill Action Forum, which Upstream convenes in partnership with the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network and Meridian Institute. I recently heard this message reinforced at SPC Advance, the annual fall members' event hosted by GreenBlue for the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. I attended to speak about reuse policy and another speaker echoed the need for reuse-as-the-default on the Main Stage.

Starbucks' and other companies' reuse pilots will never be successful if they remain as pilots. The way for brands to succeed at offering reusables is to make reusables the default option and to make that option convenient, accessible, and of course desirable (including non-toxic!). At Upstream, we’re going to keep working on motivating systems change—and in the meantime, I’m going to keep carrying my thermos in the hope that I really can “choose to reuse.”