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Why Reuse at Scale Matters
After two years of outreach and community engagement for the Hilo reusable foodware program, we’ve learned that while the idea of reducing waste through reusable takeout cups and containers resonates with many, the scale of our proposed project sometimes doesn’t. A common suggestion we’ve heard is to “start small” with a pilot program in just a subset of restaurants and expand from there.
At first glance, this approach seems logical. However, experiences from similar programs across the U.S. and Europe show that small-scale reuse projects often struggle to achieve the necessary convenience and economic efficiency for long-term success. Without scale, such programs face challenges like high operational costs, limited adoption, and logistical hurdles, making it difficult to compete with single-use options.
This is where Perpetual, the lead partner in this initiative, comes in. Perpetual is working not only in Hilo, but also in Galveston, Texas; Savannah, Georgia; and Ann Arbor, Michigan, to implement city-scale reuse demonstration projects. These efforts aim to balance environmental goals with economic benefits. By reaching a critical scale, these programs can lower per-use costs, improve convenience, and establish reuse as a viable alternative to single-use items and as a new behavioral norm.
In Hilo, this means building key infrastructure: a centralized dishwashing facility, transport vehicles, and many strategically placed collection bins to ensure convenience. Broad participation from local businesses will be crucial, allowing for reusables to be checked out at most restaurants and ensuring that both the transport vehicles and the dishwashing facility operate at full capacity when in use, making reusables as convenient and affordable as disposables. Achieving this scale will not only help the program succeed locally but also serve as a model for other communities transitioning to reuse systems.
Envisioning a future where reuse is the norm is easy. The challenge lies in building the systems to get there. Comparatively, single-use systems are more complicated than reuse—requiring resources to be extracted, products to be created, manufactured, and then shipped out (in Hawaiʻi’s case, at least 2,500 miles) to be used briefly before disposal. In Hilo, disposal means transporting waste over 70 miles to the Puʻuanahulu landfill. Despite the complexity, single-use systems remain low-cost because of their scale, with trillions produced every year. However, this low cost overlooks the many hidden costs of single-use systems—such as environmental impacts, human health impacts, and waste management expenses—which are often passed on to taxpayers, creating an uneven playing field for reuse solutions.
This is why scaling reuse is essential—not just for environmental impact, but for practicality. By starting at a larger scale, we can ensure reuse systems are both environmentally viable and economically competitive. This approach will make reusables convenient, affordable, and mainstream, while paving the way for other communities to adopt waste-free systems.
The shift to reuse is not only possible, it is critical—and it starts with doing it at scale.
Why Reuse? It just makes more sense.