The Perpetual Vision:
City-Scale Immersive Reuse Systems

How City-Scale Reuse Works

City-scale reusable foodware systems would allow consumers to borrow reusable cups and/or containers from anywhere they normally purchase food and drinks, such as restaurants, cafeterias, gas stations, convenience stores, and music venues, and return them when they are done, either in the same location or at one of many collection bins around the the city.

.A third party would collect, clean, and redistribute the reusable items to local businesses to ensure the system is efficient, hygienic, and convenient. Businesses would pay a per use fee comparable to disposable items. This is a ‘foodware-as-a-service’ model, which means that local restaurants or other foodservice businesses do not need to purchase their own cups, containers or washing systems, but rather they can access reusables the same way they might use a linen service.

Customers would not incur any fees as long as they returned the items in an agreed amount of time.

As reuse scales, systems can expand to include other types of packaging, initially expanding into locally produced food items such as milk, juice, salsa, yogurt, and hummus, and eventually expanding to connect with broader reuse systems for packaged goods including food, personal care, and household care products. These systems could also be used to wash, sanitize, and redistribute secondary and tertiary packaging.

Immersive Scale is Key

Reusable foodware programs for take-out food and beverages have the potential to be better for the environment than single-use plastics, create good local jobs, be economically sustainable over time, help cities manage their waste generation and collection, and be cost competitive with disposables for local businesses.

However, it is only possible to achieve these benefits when systems are operating at scale. There needs to be sufficient volume of reusable items moving through the system to achieve economic and environmental benefits. Additionally, there need to be enough return bins around the city so that returning a reusable item is almost as easy as throwing something in the trash. Reuse pilots have demonstrated that it very difficult to align user behavior with reuse models without implementing a city-scale system. When reuse is available throughout a city, it can become the new norm and can become an ‘automatic’ behavior for community members.

Our system design criteria

Perpetual is committed to a vision of reuse that meets the below design criteria: Economically Viable, Environmentally Viable, Technically Viable and Socially Viable. Reuse systems that meet these design requirements will be set up for short- and long-term success with both business and end users, will provide robust environmental benefits, will ensure reuse operations are safe, hygienic and well-integrated into city planning, and will ensure that reuse serves the whole community.