{"id":87335,"date":"2025-10-23T08:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=87335"},"modified":"2025-10-23T10:44:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:44:33","slug":"bring-your-own-reusable-single-use-plastic-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/bring-your-own-reusable-single-use-plastic-long-beach","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach wants to show reusable cups meaningfully reduce waste, so they\u2019re measuring it during BYO Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A coalition called Long Beach Reuses is on a mission this October: keep 1,000 single-use plastic items out of the landfill \u2014 and they want you to join them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive is called Bring Your Own Month. Since 2023, the city of Long Beach and several sustainability-focused community groups and businesses have teamed up to promote it each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just continues to build more momentum,\u201d said Dalia Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the city\u2019s Energy and Environmental Services Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colossus bakery on Second Street \u2014 one of 20 local businesses<\/a> to sign on \u2014 is participating for the first time. Throughout October, they and other bakeries, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops and even the Art Theatre, are encouraging people to bring their own reusable cups, containers and bags for anything they buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re always excited when people bring their own cup or their own box or whatever it is, so I was super excited to participate,\u201d said Colossus owner Kristin Colazas Rodriguez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than halfway through October, how successful have their efforts been?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colossus offers a 25-cent discount to anyone who brings in a reusable cup. As of Oct. 15, 70 discounts have been given this month, according to Rodriguez. By comparison, they gave the same number of discounts over the entirety of September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More broadly, the coalition is trying to track numbers across Long Beach by giving participating businesses stamp cards for customers to earn prizes and small bubble sheets to be marked each time someone brings their own reusable item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers can collect stamps each time they forgo a single-use container, and they\u2019re encouraged to turn in their stamp cards by Nov. 3 \u2014 regardless of how many stamps they collected \u2014 to be entered into a raffle for reusable water bottles, tickets to the Aquarium of the Pacific, T-shirts and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses will also give their estimate of how many reusables they saw this month based on how many stamp cards were given out and how many bubble were colored in by customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Customers can fill in this bubble sheet to help track the use of reusables. There were 68 bubbles filled in at Colossus on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. Photo courtesy Kristin Colazas Rodriguez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Gonzalez, a total of 1,200 stamp cards have been distributed to participating businesses. Colossus has been the top participant so far, handing out 100 cards to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wyatt Smeaton, the coffee program manager at Wrigley Coffee, estimates that he\u2019s been seeing four to six reusables each day during Bring Your Own Month, slightly higher than in other months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smeaton said he wants this to spur a larger movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hate thinking about the fact that the plastic cup is going to live longer than me,\u201d he said. \u201cMy hope is that these things shift habits where it’s like, \u2018Oh, of course, I bring my cup to the coffee shop.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, that is the goal for the Long Beach Reuses Coalition as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think a lot of times we’re focused on cleanups, and those are really important, but we’re focused on those downstream solutions. Once the waste is here, what do we do with it?\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cBut I think this is really important because you’re focusing on actually creating solutions so that waste doesn’t exist in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the businesses participating in BYO month accept reusables year-round. As of February, there are at least 53 businesses throughout Long Beach that accept reusables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n