Learn

Blog

All the latest ideas and news from Upstream’s thought leaders and partners.

Upstream 1/1/24 Upstream 1/1/24

Bringing Reuse for On–Site Dining into Reach

Trash pollutes city streets, waterways, parks, and natural ecosystems. It’s clear by now that disposables don’t make any sense. But really – they literally don’t make dollars or cents. Learn why this is and how Upstream is helping transform the food service sector.

Guest User 1/19/23 Guest User 1/19/23

Reuse Policy Wins in 2022

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

Vanessa Tiongson 11/21/22 Vanessa Tiongson 11/21/22

Upstream shares vision for New Reuse Economy

Today, Upstream released a new white paper: The New Reuse Economy: How reuse systems and services will revolutionize how we consume – which expands upon their vision to see 30% of consumable goods sold in reusable formats in the U.S. and Canada by 2030.

Matt Prindiville 11/17/22 Matt Prindiville 11/17/22

Upstream’s Vision

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.

Guest User 10/5/22 Guest User 10/5/22

Overcoming the challenges to reuse

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.

Guest User 9/30/22 Guest User 9/30/22

Upstream and Closed Loop Partners Announce Winners of The Reusies® 2022, Identifying Leaders in Eliminating Single-Use Products

Announcing… the winners of The Reusies 2022!

Erin Covey-Smith 9/15/22 Erin Covey-Smith 9/15/22

Two Reusies Finalists Among Innovators in Reusable Bag Pilots

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.

Vanessa Tiongson 9/1/22 Vanessa Tiongson 9/1/22

What does “indisposable” mean to you?

The Indisposable Podcast™ is celebrating its 100th episode this week! We turned to some members of the Upstream team to see what “indisposable” has come to mean to them.

Vanessa Tiongson 8/24/22 Vanessa Tiongson 8/24/22

Meet the Innovators of the Reuse Movement

Meet the finalists for The Reusies® 2022!

Guest User 8/4/22 Guest User 8/4/22

How to do reuse at home

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

Guest User 7/29/22 Guest User 7/29/22

The New Reuse Economy: The future of food service is reusable

Emerging trends in foodservice have the potential to completely disrupt our current disposable food-service paradigm and replace it with something better.

Macy Zander 7/15/22 Macy Zander 7/15/22

Reuse Cities are the Key to an Indisposable Future

Community coalitions like Reuse Seattle are leading the way in developing the New Reuse Economy – and Upstream’s Macy Zander is here to help.

Matt Prindiville 7/1/22 Matt Prindiville 7/1/22

Beverage Refill & The New Reuse Economy

The beverage sector is one of the ripest sectors for reuse. Leaving out closed systems like reuse for on-site dining, more beverage reuse/refill systems operate at scale than all other open systems.

Matt Prindiville 6/2/22 Matt Prindiville 6/2/22

3 Takeaways from Circularity 22

Upstream CEO Matt Prindiville just returned from GreenBiz’s Circularity Conference. It was a sold-out 3 day affair with more than a thousand sustainability professionals from virtually every consumer brand, plus representatives from the rest of their value chain. Here are three valuable takeaways from the conference.

Matt Prindiville 5/19/22 Matt Prindiville 5/19/22

EPR: it’s not just for recycling anymore

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.

Matt Prindiville 5/13/22 Matt Prindiville 5/13/22

Infrastructure to Scale the New Reuse Economy

Reuse services require collection from the consumer, reverse logistics, washing and sanitizing, refilling and/or restocking. Because of the challenges and costs associated for individual companies going it alone, it’s important for businesses to be able to operate on platforms that can serve many companies at the same time.

Matt Prindiville 5/12/22 Matt Prindiville 5/12/22

Celebrating the Visionary Sego Jackson on his Retirement

This week, Sego Jackson - one of Upstream’s founding board members - retired from the City of Seattle. As the saying goes, “People don’t remember what you said. They remember how you made them feel.” And I remember the way Sego made me feel when I first met him back in 2004.

Miriam Gordon 5/5/22 Miriam Gordon 5/5/22

Organizing for Reuse: Local Changemakers in Action

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.

Marcel Howard 4/22/22 Marcel Howard 4/22/22

Climate, plastics and reuse

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.

Matt Prindiville 4/14/22 Matt Prindiville 4/14/22

Which comes first? Extended Producer Responsibility or Deposit-Return?

With big brands signaling support for extended producer responsibility (EPR), deposit-return systems (DRS), and – most recently – reuse/refill, opportunities have opened up to pass policies and build infrastructure to transform how we consume products. But with these commitments come competing ideas around vision, strategies and tactics – and about which policies should come first, and which should follow.

Brooking Gatewood 4/1/22 Brooking Gatewood 4/1/22

Women who power the Reuse Movement

In honor of Women’s History Month, Indisposable Podcast host Brooking Gatewood presents a roundup of her favorite interviews with some of the many innovative, visionary, women-identified Solutioneers driving the Reuse Movement forward.

Matt Prindiville & Miriam Gordon 3/25/22 Matt Prindiville & Miriam Gordon 3/25/22

PepsiCo and Starbucks announce goals for reuse

In the last month, some BIG brands who have been major players in the throw-away economy made historic announcements about their goals to move to reuse. We recognize that creating financial incentives for returning the packaging will be critical for ensuring that the reusable packaging doesn’t wind up in the garbage or environment.

Guest User 3/18/22 Guest User 3/18/22

Eliminating single-use cups at events

With fans returning to sporting arenas and concert-goers celebrating the return of music festivals, sustainability issues at events and venues are coming back into focus - specifically, the ever-present disposable plastic cup. Many attempts at solutions have been introduced, from bioplastic to reuse systems and now single-use aluminum cups. But there has been no clear scientific consensus as to which options have the greatest environmental impact and which options have the least - until now.

Guest User 2/17/22 Guest User 2/17/22

Bringing Reuse Solutions for On–Site Dining into Reach

Trash pollutes city streets, waterways, parks, and natural ecosystems – all at a cost to people and the planet. It’s clear by now that disposables don’t make any sense. But really – they literally don’t make dollars or cents. Learn why this is and how Upstream is helping transform the food service sector from a disposable nightmare to a real and reusable future.

Matt Prindiville 2/10/22 Matt Prindiville 2/10/22

Coca Cola pledges to serve 25% of beverages in reusables by 2030

Coca Cola announced their commitment to serve 25% of their beverages in reusable packaging by 2030. Learn what this means for reusables in consumer brands and join us in commending their commitment to growing a circular economy for packaging that prioritizes “reduce and reuse” first – over recycling.

Guest User 2/10/22 Guest User 2/10/22

How Extended Producer Responsibility Can Help Build a Waste-Free Future

EPR – aka extended producer responsibility – is a policy tool that holds consumer brands responsible for the environmental impacts of their products and packaging. Learn how EPR can move us toward a circular economy that follows the waste reduction hierarchy of reduce and reuse first, before recycling.

Marcel Howard 2/3/22 Marcel Howard 2/3/22

Exploring the History of Environmental Justice to Support Anti-Racism

In honor of Black History Month, learn the past and present of today’s environmental justice (EJ) movement. Find out how environmental racism has played a role in the mistreatment of communities of color throughout United States history – and how reuse can help drive equal access to economic, social, and environmental opportunities.

Matt Prindiville 1/27/22 Matt Prindiville 1/27/22

How Bottle Bills Reduce Waste and Support the Circular Economy

Walk through the history – and future – of bottle bills (aka deposit-refund systems) and explore how bottle bills were used in the past and what caused the shift from this reuse–refill economic model to the modern-era throw-away system.

Guest User 1/20/22 Guest User 1/20/22

Upstream’s roots

Learn about Upstream’s roots and the journey of the zero waste movement. From the history of waste management to the innovation of extended producer responsibility policies, see how far we’ve come today.

Wash Hub Map

Blog

Sign Up for Upstream Updates