The Reusies, created by Upstream, champions the heroes making reuse a reality for people across the US & Canada by uplifting their stories and providing them with meaningful support.

It’s an awards show and so much more: a platform to highlight solutions, an inspirational spark to encourage innovation and collaboration, and a resource to help the reuse movement grow.

There will be an awards program for The Reusies 2024 at GreenBiz’s Circularity 24 on Thursday, May 23, 2024 in Chicago. This year’s Activist winners will be featured in a livestream on April 23. You can learn more about the Community winners here and about the Most Innovative finalists here.

Upstream is a US-based non-profit and leading change agency for the reuse movement in the US and Canada. Their mission is to accelerate the transition from our current throw-away economy to one that is regenerative, circular and equitable by normalizing reuse, growing and supporting the reuse industry, and creating an enabling policy environment for reuse. Learn more at upstreamsolutions.org.

This year’s awards categories are:

Most Innovative Reuse Company: This award is intended for businesses that provide a service that keeps reusables circulating in our economy. Think: a dishwashing service that picks up and returns real dishes to a restaurant, or a to-go coffee cup that is collected for return and reuse by the cafe that provides it. The service provider could also offer a product – like bath & body or cleaning products that are sold in containers meant for refill by the same provider. Awards are offered in three sectors: Consumer Packaged Good, Fashion & Apparel, and Food & Beverage.

Activist of the Year: This award is intended for the individual changemakers and heroes who are championing reduce, refill and reuse solutions in their communities. They could be working in an unpaid or paid capacity as the leader of or part of a grassroots group; advocating for reuse on your own; or otherwise acting as a reuse role model through thought leadership and/or on the ground action.

Community of the Year: This award is intended for community groups, coalitions, student groups, nonprofits, and NGOs working to make reuse a reality in their communities. For example, they could be supporting the buildout of reuse projects and infrastructure in their community; working on reuse-focused policy initiatives; or designing and implementing awareness campaigns.

Any person, group, or business who feels they fit the category descriptions, and whose work is primarily based in the US or Canada, may apply to The Reusies.

See past winners here: Activists, Communities, Innovators. This year’s Activist and Community winners have also been announced. You can learn about the 2024 finalists for Most Innovative here.

The online application period is closed for 2024. Please come back next year! Sign up for updates here.

With The Reusies in its fourth year, we’ve been reflecting and listening to our communities and networks on ways to improve the program. And so we have developed some new ways to honor the community groups and activists in the reuse movement, while leaning into more of what made the innovation awards special for reuse-focused businesses.

Community & Activist awards: With an eye toward celebrating a diversity of stories in communities across the US and Canada and providing more individuals and groups with material support, we are expanding the Community and Activist awards to three winners in each category and providing a monetary prize to each in the amount of $2,500. In order to eliminate any sense of competition between governments and community groups, applications from government-based entities were considered in a separate pool from those of community groups.

The three activist winners will be featured in a livestream separate from The Reusies on April 23, and the three community winners will be featured on The Indisposable Podcast. All winners’ stories will be featured in The Reusies 2024 video program at Circularity. Stay tuned for more details!

Most Innovative awards: These will stay largely the same as in past years with three finalists per category (food & beverage, consumer packaged goods and fashion & apparel) and one winner selected in each. However, a substantial change is that part of the prize package will include an All-Access pass (valued at $2,152 USD) to attend and participate in Circularity 24 (available to all Most Innovative finalists), so they have an opportunity to be recognized among their peers while playing a larger part in the conversation around reuse innovation. Most Innovative winners will be announced live at Circularity on May 23 and will have an opportunity to accept their award on stage! (In-person attendance at Circularity is not required in order to be selected as a winner.)

For all categories, we aim to expand and customize the prize package to include awards that stand to support and accelerate the work of the winners.

The Reusies will be presented in person at GreenBiz’s Circularity 24 on Thursday, May 23, 2024 in Chicago, and available to watch online afterwards.

We’ll be featuring The Reusies participants and finalists before and after the ceremony on May 23 via livestreams, podcasts, and more. Sign up to receive updates.

If you are interested in attending in person, you can register for Circularity 24 here. Use code C24UPSTM to save 20% off an all-access pass.

During the application period (now closed), please share the call for applications widely!

All winners will receive special features on Uptream’s engaged social media and email audiences, as well as in-kind prizes courtesy of our amplifying partners.

We also have some exciting incentives that are new this year!

Upstream is pleased to be able to award all Activist and Community group winners (three in each category) with a monetary prize of $2,500 each.

The nine Most Innovative Reuse Company finalists will each be eligible for an All-Access pass to attend Circularity 24 (valued at $2,152 USD), and will be invited to participate in programming at the conference as a speaker or panelist — and, of course, accept their award in person if they win!

Also new for this year, Upstream will offer consultation from our own team of reuse experts to best suit winners’ needs.

For the Most Innovative Reuse Company awards, a selection committee will narrow down three finalists in each category (consumer packaged goods, fashion & apparel and food & beverage), and a separate panel of judges will select one winner for each category. Finalists were informed in early April and winners will be announced on stage at Circularity on May 23.

For the Activist and Community of the Year awards, a selection committee will selected three winners from each category. Winners were announced in early April.

Yes! You can vote for Most Innovative Reuse Company in three cateogories (Food & Beverage, Consumer Packaged Goods, and Fashion & Apparel) here.

This year, in seeking to recognize more community and activist winners and de-emphasize the competitive aspect of these categories, public voting will be available for Most Innovative finalists only.

Visit the past winners pages below:

Activists

Communities

Innovators

The Reusies is always on the lookout for non-profit partners to help amplify the event and provide in-kind assistance, as well as for corporate sponsors to provide much-needed financial support. We have a variety of ways to feature our partners and sponsors leading up to, and on the day of the event.

For sponsorship inquiries, please contact julie@upstreamsolutions.org

For partnership inquiries, please contact ben@upstreamsolutions.org.

As a small 501(c)(3), we are always appreciative of individual donors who are willing to help underwrite costs for valuable programming like The Reusies. Donate today.

The Upstream website has a vast array of tools and educational resources on reuse for a variety of audiences, including activists, entrepreneurs, government officials, and those who are just getting started on their reuse journeys.

We encourage you to sign up for Upstream’s weekly newsletter here to stay up to date on the latest news from Upstream and the wider world of reuse.