GIVE ’EM A HAND: REUSABLE CUPS AT CIRCLE K
In August in Petaluma, California, Cir- cle K joined other retailers in a city- wide test initiative for reusable cups. The program, which ran until Oct. 28, involves more than 30 foodservice retailers giving customers reusable to- go cups, “which they will then return to provided bins—where they’ll be picked up, sanitized and delivered back to restaurants. The cups are purple with a ‘Sip, Return, Repeat’ reminder printed on them”. There will be more than 60 bins available throughout the city. This program is a partnership with New York-based NextGen Consortium, which aims to address single-use foodservice packaging waste by advancing the design, commercialization and recovery of packaging alternatives.
“As a global supplier of on- the-go food and beverages for immediate consumption, we play a crucial role in helping to reduce waste.”
Circle K said, it continues to highlight its reusable vessels and encourages customers and team members to bring their own reusable cups and mugs. In Circle K’s 2024 fiscal year that ended in May, “Our customers used their refillable cups over 45 million times, reducing the need for us to provide cups that would otherwise end up in the waste stream,” the company said. CASEY’S AMONG RETAILERS EXPANDING USE OF SOLAR POWER Solar power is burning brighter as convenience retailers increasingly eye sustainable energy solutions. And it’s little wonder: Convenience stores require a lot of energy to operate, from refrigeration to lighting to heating-cooling systems to distribution networks and more. In July, bp-owned TravelCenters of America (TA) broke ground on an electric truck charging station in Ontario, California. The site, a pilot project with the California Energy Commission, is slated to become an innovation station, one that will test a megawatt charger system fueled
cups and food boxes. To promote engagement, customers are offered a discount if they use reusable containers. “As a global supplier of on-the-go food and beverages for immediate consumption, we play a crucial role in helping to reduce waste,” Circle K said in its report. “As we continue to explore packaging solutions, we are looking for more sustainable options that make it easy for customers and our store teams. Those ways include collaborating with suppliers to find the best solutions for a quality experience “while mitigating the impact on the planet,” the company said. These efforts have increased Circle K’s use of certified materials and recycled content in its packaging. “In 2024, driving our work to reach a 25% improvement in our packaging compared to our 2020 baseline, we gathered data globally on current branded packaging specifications, measuring our progress to date,” the report said. “The results show that we have already exceeded our 2025 goal, with 32% of our packaging portfolio by weight meeting our sustainable attributes: recycled content, certified materials, reusability or compostable materials.” Across North America and Europe,
—CIRCLE K’S 2024 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
This project, however, is one small piece of what Circle K is doing to reduce cup waste. While the convenience-store chain’s cup-reuse efforts are in their infancy in the U.S., the story is different elsewhere. For example, in Germany, about 700 participating Circle K locations in 2023 distributed 28,000 reusable cups that work with a deposit system, saving about 815 pounds in waste, according to Circle K’s 2024 Sustainability Report. In Sweden, 63 stores last year launched the option of reusable
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SUSTAINABILITY OUTLOOK 2025
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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