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.
Ask people to bring their own washed cup with the appropriate capacity. If they don’t have one, provide them with a reusable cup they have to pay extra for.
You have to make people pay to overcome the path of least effort that single use plastics opened.
Just like paid plastic bags in supermarkets, I believe it works well.
Yep: What has worked to fight climate change? Policies where someone pays for polluting, study finds
I have a sneaking suspicion that at least in some US states this would be problematic with local health departments. I do not know, but it seems these departments might look askance at Joe Schmo handing an un-verifiably “clean” container into the food service area and hands of the workers.