Petaluma reusable purple cup project ends with over 200,000 cups avoiding landfill
Downtown Petaluma is already decked out for the holidays. But something is missing: 60 strategically placed purple bins placed as part of a plan to reduce disposable cup waste.
"Those purple bins all went away on November 15," noted Patrick Carter.
The purple bins and the purple cups put in them were all part of a groundbreaking 3-month experiment called the Petaluma Reusable Cup Project.
An investment firm called Closed Loop Partners had run the project. It was funded by major global and local brands as well as restaurants.
"Yeah, it's over. From what I've gathered it went really, really well," exclaimed Rachel Adams at the Petaluma Pie Company.
The project was eye-opening in its scope. For the first time in the United States, an entire downtown business community agreed to replace its single use disposable cups–with free reusable plastic ones.
The goal: for researchers and the community to see what would happen.
Thirty businesses participated including cafes, restaurants, and even dessert palaces.
Customers were instructed to toss the reusable purple plastic cups into the designated purple bins, where the cups would then get picked up, washed, sanitized, and returned for a repeat performance.
Each cup had a unique tracking code.
At Avid Coffee, CBS News Bay Area spoke with James who declined to provide his last name.
"I used them a number of times, and I thought it was a great idea," explained the young man.
The use of the cups ended on Halloween, but the bins were left in place until this week to catch any straggling purple cups.
Now the researchers have released one early result. In just 12 weeks, more than 220,000 cups were returned for reuse and apparently kept out of trash and landfill.
But not everyone felt comfortable using plastic cups, especially when using them with hot drinks.
Local Don Ross at first liked the idea, but then had second thoughts.
"I was concerned about the interaction of the heat and plastic,' explained Ross.
Ashley Harris manages the Petaluma Coffee and Tea Company. She told CBS News Bay Area how her customers were mixed in their reaction but that the biggest winner in the experiment: it got the community brewing up new ideas on how to cut waste and make a difference.
"The biggest win of this? Is that it got the conversation started. It got people thinking, and people who didn't like the cups started bringing their own cups in," noted Harris.
Carter said the experiment informed him about just how dedicated the community is to solve the waste problem.
"There was some contamination, but overall they did an amazing job not only putting the purple cups – only putting the purple stuff we wanted – into the bins but that they wanted to do the right thing to reduce waste"
A final report is expected early next year, most likely in February.