It's been another successful year for the ReThink Disposable program, and we want to thank our Board, our members, and our valued supporters for trusting us to do this work.
We wrapped up a four-year contract with StopWaste where we worked together to reduce single-use disposable foodware in Alameda County. We've done multiple conversion case studies with local businesses over the course of this contract — the most recent a five (5) restaurant study in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, where we found that even a simple straw and sauce cup conversion saves the restaurant $694 annually and removes 44,063 individual pieces (144 pounds) of single use foodware from the waste stream each year.
Nearly 500 restaurants were visited, almost 300 decision makers contacted directly, and 59 restaurants realized cost saving, plastic reduction, trash diversion, and a healthier way to feed their communities. Throughout this partnership, we also created videos showcasing our work and promoted several Alameda County restaurants on ReThink’s social media.
Clean Water Fund and the ReThink Disposable program would like to thank StopWaste for contracting with us to reduce plastic waste in Alameda County. Over the course of the contract, we were able to focus on conversions that support businesses and reduce trash in historically-marginalized communities. Plastic reduction is critical for the health of our water, as well as for the health of our community.
Looking further afield, our project with the National Parks Foundation is drawing to a close, and we are excited to share that along with other reuse solutions, both Mammoth Cave and Petrified National Forest have switched out all their plastic water bottles for sustainable stainless steel. All three parks we are working with – Petrified National Forest, Mammoth Cave, and Jamaica Bay – will be over 95% reusable!
To celebrate Plastic Free July this year, we hosted California’s 2nd annual Clean Water Making Waves fundraising event—to great success. Taking place at Fluid510 in Oakland, we welcomed celebrity Chef Tu David Phu as our featured guest. We were joined by Congresswoman Lateefah Simon’s staff, and we honored three Bay Area champions: Berkeley City Councilmember Igor Tregub, East Oakland community leader John Arthur Jones III, and leaders of the next generation at Greenaction Youth Environmental Justice Leaders. We also welcomed Clean Water Fund’s National Major Gifts Officer, Connie St. John, along with our members, coalition partners, and friends—all while raising funds to continue our work. We're already looking forward to our annual event in 2026!
2025 saw ReThink Disposable meet or exceed our conversion goals, and we are very much looking forward to transitioning to a new system that will allow us to calculate the impact of all 700+ restaurants in the ReThink family. We are also working as a team to find ways to step into new spaces, approaching takeout, food trucks, and anywhere historically-marginalized communities are struggling to meet regulatory requirements with limited resources and ever-shrinking margins. Together, we can stop trash before it starts.
Thank you again for supporting our work; we couldn't do it without you! We look forward to 2026 and hope to count on your continued support.
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