Should the reuse movement continue to pursue cup fees?
A summary and insights from the Q1 meetings of the Reuse Solutions Network & Government Reuse Forum
Upstream’s Reuse Solutions Network (RSN) provides a valuable convening space for NGOs, entrepreneurs, local organizations, community leaders, and governments working to catalyze reuse. Besides offering a digital forum for resource sharing and brainstorming, we meet once per quarter to focus on topics relevant to the moment in the world of reuse.
This quarter’s topic was “Lessons Learned from Cup Fee Repeals.” Though these meetings are only for members of the RSN (info on joining below!), we are happy to share the key learnings and takeaways since they are so useful for the movement as a whole.
A sub-group of the RSN, the Government Reuse Forum, also meets quarterly to look at policy challenges and solutions. This quarter’s meeting dove deeper into the discussion we outline below, as well as the livestream on the definition of reuse also held this quarter.
Anyone working on reuse solutions is welcome and encouraged to sign up to join these networks. Our next meeting is on April 18th and is going to feature Christiana Dujardin from SYSTEMIQ, presenting on the myth that you must have customer demand before scaling reuse. Join us!
Reuse Solutions Network Panel Discussion: Lessons Learned from Cup Fee Repeals
In 2023, both Bainbridge Island, WA and Vancouver, British Columbia repealed ordinances imposing a fee on single-use cups. Though on their surface, these repeals may seem like a setback in reducing single-use waste and encouraging reusables, there is a lot of debate around cup fees which elicits the question: should the reuse movement even be pursuing cup fees?
Autumn Salamack, Climate Officer for Bainbridge Island; Sue Maxwell and Tamara Shulman from Zero Waste BC; and Alejandra Warren from Plastic-Free Future joined us to dive into this question, explore the nuances behind cup fees, and share lessons from implementing and then rolling back these fees.
Bainbridge Island City: Challenged by Change
Bainbridge Island’s ordinance was enacted in January 2023 and required a $0.25 fee on all single-use disposable cups. Drawing on research, they found incentives are not as effective as fees in encouraging consumers to bring their own cups to coffee shops and other businesses offering beverages to-go.
They soon faced challenges, however: frontline retail staff received verbal abuse from customers resistant to the fees, and businesses were hesitant to take on the financial burden of updating their point-of-sale systems to account for the fees. Bainbridge Island is also a high-tourism area, which limits the potential of sustained behavior change (since tourists cause high turnover in a customer base and are not likely to carry their own reusables).
In light of these obstacles, Bainbridge Island removed their fee in September 2023. They still encourage and promote reusable cups, but without policy enforcement.
Vancouver: dataless decision making
Vancouver’s fee was implemented as part of a larger single-use item reduction strategy in January of 2022. From then until the repeal in May of 2023, they faced political pushback (there was an election in October 2022), equity concerns, and lack of public awareness.
Many opponents were concerned that the fees were ineffective, but because of the way the City Council submitted their motion to repeal, no data from the annual report, waste analysis, or staff reports were included in decision-making.
Sue and Tamara shared some important lessons from their experience:
Recruit and unite reuse companies in the area to help make the case for/with you.
Allow space for learning while working on policy that will affect your community.
Make sure that the small businesses and residents are supported to provide their voice at public meetings—and be cautious with industry associations, which may change their stance depending on their broader interests.
Alejandra Warren: Reuse needs to work for everyone to work at all
While Autumn, Sue, and Tamara could see in hindsight that perhaps the cup fees in their cities could have been more effective with some changes in process, Alejandra Warren opened the question of whether they should be pursued at all.
She emphasized that reuse policy needs wholehearted involvement and buy-in of the community it affects. No matter the municipality, she pointed out that the burden of the fees falls on low-income and marginalized communities who often do not have the capacity to BYO, much less pay a single-use fee. Alejandra is an advocate for reuse systems and a circular economy that is built for all, without imposing a financial burden on businesses or consumers.
The way forward? It depends.
So, should we continue to pursue fees as a means of advancing reuse? Every community and policy is different and considers this question through a different lens. Here are some final thoughts from the panelists:
A larger governance area may make it easier to impose cup fees. Regional or state-level implementation can lead to greater effectiveness so the burden doesn’t fall to a single municipality to roll out and enforce the policy—a more coordinated effort can be organized across the region.
Equity concerns are real and should be addressed. We need diverse representation when ideating and sharing these policies, along with community education.
Ideally, cup fee policies can be packaged with—or, follow—BYO and reuse for onsite dining policies. It’s ideal to couple a cup/container fee with reuse for onsite dining and BYO, so customers feel like they have solid options in place to avoid fees. As we’ve seen, on their own, these fees can be challenging to impose. Perhaps cup fees should only be considered after first implementing reuse for onsite dining and BYO.