‘Sip, return, repeat’: US city tackles throwaway cup culture with first-of-its-kind system

From Starbucks to local cafes, Petaluma's reusable cup project aims to cut down on rampant plastic waste

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

The cups might seem unassuming, but they're part of a groundbreaking new scheme that has the community buzzing. Instead of the single-use paper or plastic cups that Gearhard would usually line up for the barista slinging espresso, he's passing over shiny new reusable cups that bear the slogan Sip, Return, Repeat". Customers who need their lattes to go can take the purple cups with them, then return them to one of 60 bins scattered across downtown Petaluma when they've finished. Each cup comes with a trackable QR code to help monitor results.