A row of purple plastic cups on the counter at Avid Coffee grows longer as Sam Gearhard takes orders on a weekday morning at the shop in Petaluma, California.

The cups may seem unassuming, but they’re part of a groundbreaking new concept that’s generating excitement in the community. Instead of the disposable paper or plastic cups that Gearhard typically keeps on hand for the barista’s espresso, he hands out shiny new reusable cups with the slogan “Sip, Return, Repeat.” Customers who need their latte to go can take the purple cups with them, then return them to one of the 60 bins scattered around downtown Petaluma when they’re empty. Each cup is labeled with a trackable QR code to monitor results.

So far, Gearhard said, 30 businesses in downtown Petaluma, a charming wine town about 50 miles north of San Francisco, have opted into the program. And at Avid, they’ve only given out reusable cups since the project began — except for the odd out-of-towner who asks for a paper cup for on-the-go. “For us, the transition has been really nice and easy,” Gearhard said. “I was worried that people wouldn’t embrace it as well as they had before.”

As we chat, I hold a cup of coffee in my hand and am impressed that the espresso doesn’t burn my hand through the plastic wall. And while their purple hue is very purple, I appreciate that the cups are pristine – clearly more professionally sanitized than similar cups I’ve seen in food courts and cafeterias. The stores don’t have to clean the cups themselves – they’re washed by an outside logistics company – which means that’s one less thing for businesses to consider when making the switch.

This month, Petaluma became the first city in the U.S. to launch a citywide reusable cup program aimed at reducing the 50 billion single-use cups purchased and thrown away in the U.S. each year. Thirty businesses, from mom-and-pop shops like Avid to chains like Starbucks and Taco Bell, have agreed to distribute the reusable cups as part of a pilot project.

The initiative comes as California leads the U.S. in the fight to phase out single-use plastics. The state passed a law in 2022 requiring all packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2032. Last year, Los Angeles County passed a ban on single-use plastics in restaurants, and earlier this year, the city of Berkeley passed the country’s most comprehensive food packaging law.

“We have a really strong interest in climate change mitigation because we’ve experienced our own climate challenges,” said Leslie Lukacs, executive director of Zero Waste Sonoma, a local environmental agency, citing recent wildfires and flooding in the region. It’s “an environment where climate change is a political and societal goal.”

The Petaluma Reusable Cup Project officially began on August 1, when local businesses began handing out reusable cups; chains followed on August 5. So far, restaurants and their customers seem to be adapting well to the change — and are proud of it.

Outside one of the participating cafes, Stellina Pronto, mother and daughter Bonnie and Claire McDonell – who met for lunch halfway between their homes in Sebastopol and San Francisco – noted that in the future they might specifically choose a restaurant based on whether it offers the reusable option.

Further down the road at the Fiber Circle Studio, shop owner Alisha Bright said she had already used four cups in the first week of the program – one of which was at her front desk – and praised the quality of the cups for keeping drinks colder longer than traditional single-use plastic cups. She had drunk a soda from The Bagel Mill earlier in the week and noticed that the ice in the cup was still solid an hour after purchasing it – though she also noted that she had collected a few cups at home that she had to return.

Numerous companies, investment firms and startups have joined forces to design, organize and finance the project, including Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment firm specializing in the circular economy, as well as Starbucks, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Peet’s Coffee and Yum! Brands.

Together, they’ve partnered with the City of Petaluma, Zero Waste Sonoma, and local recycling program Recology to study whether the program is feasible and can be expanded to other cities. One of the key metrics they’re watching is how many cups are actually returned.

Manufacturing and cleaning reusable products almost always involves a greater environmental impact, so how often they are reused is key to whether they are better for the environment than single-use products, says Jessica Heiges, project manager for zero waste and circular economy at environmental consultancy WSP.

Heiges is not involved in the project but was involved in Vessel, a reusable product program piloted in the city of Berkeley before the pandemic, during her doctoral research. She is optimistic about the future of the Petaluma project because it “makes the reusable option as convenient as the disposable option.”

Each reusable cup in the project has been fitted with a QR code so Closed Loop can collect data on which return containers are used most often, whether the cups end up in the trash or recycling instead, and whether it would be helpful to allow residents to schedule pickups from home. Kate Daly, managing director and head of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners, said in an email that the company will also collect data on how far the cups travel and how much water and energy is needed to rinse them.

Choosing a reusable plastic cup was another part of this calculation.

“Although metal, glass and ceramic are ideal materials for personal and reusable cups, it still makes more sense to use plastic for to-go cups,” says Daly, as it is lighter and easier to transport and does not break as easily.

While local enthusiasm is high, experts caution that the venture will likely face obstacles. “The focus on a relatively small downtown helps, but there will still be a lot of transportation, cup collection and washing,” Alastair Iles, a professor of sustainability transformations at UC Berkeley, said in an email. He added that it will require close monitoring of return bins (so they don’t become overfilled), consumer behavior (and whether customers are willing to return cups) and business needs. “The social norm of using disposable cups is ingrained in our lives today.”

In Petaluma, the reusable cup project is scheduled to run until November. What happens next depends on how it goes – and how it could be implemented and financed by future cities or companies.

In the first week alone, Petaluma has already learned a lot, says Ashley Harris, owner of Petaluma Coffee and Tea, which is participating in the project. “As a cafe, we see an incredible amount of waste. It’s painful and heartbreaking, and it’s also part of our business, so if there’s a way to improve, we’re going to do it.”