Instead of the single-use paper or plastic cups that Gearhard would usually line up for the barista slinging espresso, he’s passing over shiny new reusable cups that bear the slogan “Sip, Return, Repeat”. Customers who need their lattes to go can take the purple cups with them, then return them to one of 60 bins scattered across downtown Petaluma when they’ve finished. Each cup comes with a trackable QR code to help monitor results.
I suspect that making metal insulated cups is cheap these days. Perhaps this could solve that. I doubt people would hoard mountains of them. Then it becomes a matter of paying for the hoarded ones. People hoarded and still do some glass bottles where glass bottle replacement schemes exist/have existed.
Thinking more on this point, a genuine replacement for single use plastics for beverages could be a soda can equivalent, cheap, double wall aluminum container. If someone can make such a container for low enough cost, that could be a solution since aluminum is infinitely recyclable.