Editor’s note: This commentary is part of a regular series, Green Briefs, written by eco-leaders on Vashon and presented in The Beachcomber in partnership with The Whole Vashon Project.

Over 500 billion disposable cups are used around the world every year — all of them destined for a landfill, a burn pile or the side of the road as litter.

This “convenience” comes at great harm to our planet. And it’s begging for a systemic change.

To that end, two islanders started the Reusable Cup Project on Vashon this summer, part of an ongoing effort to make our island both a more sustainable place and a model for other communities.

You may have seen them at Strawberry Festival’s Beverage Garden in July, where the project was unveiled: Instead of drinking beer out of hard-to-recycle plastic cups, islanders were served their beer in sleek stainless-steel tumblers — cups that are completely reusable.

Celia Congdon, who heads Choose Plastic Free, and Nadine Edelstein, who spearheaded Vashon’s all-volunteer plastics recycling program for several years, came up with the idea of a reusable cup project last winter. The two women partnered with the Vashon-Maury Chamber of Commerce, which hosts the festival, to launch the project. They received financial support from Zero Waste Vashon and a major donor.

The cups — 2,000 14-ounce cups and 1,000 8-ounce ones — are now owned by the Chamber and are available for use by Vashon non-profits and Chamber members. Borrowers will be expected to return the cups clean, dry, stacked and in good condition. There is no cost for use.

The project’s inaugural run was a success, Celia and Nadine said.

Amy Drayer, the Chamber’s former executive director, was very receptive to the project when the two presented it to her last spring. Amy then took the proposal to Cheryl Lubbert, president of the Chamber and organizer of the festival’s Beverage Garden, who also embraced the idea.

“We were thrilled to be the first to demonstrate a sustainable approach to beverage gardens,” Cheryl said.

There was also strong community support. The Vashon Senior Center provided a washing center during festival, and Open Space for Arts & Community provided temporary storage. And as a sign of the project’s success, six groups have already used the cups or reserved them since their unveiling at Strawberry Festival.

Both Nadine and Celia say they’re grateful for the support.

“The Chamber and others in the community helped us demonstrate that the shift to a reusable culture is both possible and preferable,” Nadine said.

“Unquestionably,” added Celia, “this was a community effort.”

Other communities are also working to demonstrate the value and wisdom of ending our addiction to throw-away cups.

In August, Petaluma, California became the first city in the United States to introduce a city-wide reusable cup program. Customers who want their coffee to go can take a purple cup bearing the slogan “Sip, Return, Repeat,” returning the cup to one of 60 bins scattered across downtown. Already, 30 businesses in town have embraced the practice, according to an article in The Guardian.

Another program, called Good to Go Cups, was started in 2021 by two Twin Cities women, Melissa Seeley and Michelle Horan, who designed cups made from a compostable polymer that is high-heat tolerant and able to be reused repeatedly. They now have 32 participating coffee shops in five states.

“All data suggests we cannot recycle our way out of our current waste situation,” they write on their website. “We are on the forefront of a paradigm shift into the circular economy, where reuse is the key.”

No program is perfect. Both of these programs use plastic cups, which raises a number of health and environmental concerns. Nadine and Celia opted for stainless steel — energy-intensive to manufacture but without any of the problems of plastic and with a long usage lifetime.

All the same, these moves to a circular economy — here on Vashon and in other communities across the globe — are encouraging and worth celebrating.

So here’s a toast to Nadine and Celia, to the Chamber of Commerce, Zero Waste Vashon, and other community partners, and to all of us who are embracing the Reusable Cup Concept.

Let’s raise our stainless-steel cups to them and to the planet!

Steve Bergman is a geologist, Zero Waste Vashon board member and Whole Vashon Project advisor. Leslie Brown is a former editor of The Beachcomber.