California city experimenting with returnable, reusable cups at Starbucks, Taco Bell and others

People living and traveling through one northern California city are about to become guinea pigs for a project designed to reduce waste. 

The Reusable Cup Project is an initiative funded by the NextGen Consortium that runs in partnership with the city of Petaluma and local businesses. More than 30 restaurants in Petaluma are participating in the project, ranging from local eateries to well-known brands like Starbucks, Taco Bell, Dunkin' and Target.

"What they've told us they like about Petaluma is that there's already a spirit of sustainability in Petaluma and [an] interest in trying to reduce the amount of waste that we're creating collectively as a city," Patrick Carter, assistant of the city manager who oversees the program, said in a phone call with FOX Business. "They liked the combination of kind of a denser downtown, more businesses together that are serving these drinks, these beverages, but with a smaller population." 

About 60,000 people live in Petaluma, Carter said. The city lies between San Francisco and Santa Rosa and is about an hour and a half drive away from the state capital of Sacramento.  

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The project, which kicks off Aug. 5 and will run until November, had been in discussions for about eight to 10 months, Carter said. NextGen Consortium, which is led by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners investment firm, asked the city for help identifying the best businesses to participate. 

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The reusable cups are purposely purple, Carter said. Customers served beverages in them will not be charged deposits or have to take any extra steps besides enjoying their drink. When customers are done with their cups, they are asked to return them to any purple return bin that can be found "all over town," the project's website, returnmycup.com, states. The site also features a map of drop-off locations.

Cups will be "professionally washed, sanitized then put back to use," according to project's website. Carter said a third-party company named Muuse will be responsible for collecting and servicing the bins, and there is no cost to the city for the program.

Businesses participating will have return bins, but customers do not need to return the cup to the location they were served their beverage in. The Return My Cup website even has a form for those in or near Petaluma to request a cup pickup. 

In the U.S., 50 billion paper coffee cups are being thrown away every year, according to an estimate by Waste Advantage Magazine. 

Carter said along with reduced waste, the hope is businesses will also see reduced costs as they no longer need to pay for single-use cups to serve hot or cold beverages.

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He is hopeful data from the program's initial three-month trial would not only help them figure out a model to continue it locally, but possibly nationwide.

"I think we would count ourselves really lucky to be the place where it started," Carter said.