Presenting: Retrocycle – Reuse Cups, Made Easy
Details
Retrocycle (http://retrocycle.org) — Co-Founder MK Katz presenting — is building a town-wide reusable cup network to replace single-use coffee cups in Colorado communities.
Colorado throws away millions of single-use coffee cups every year, most of which cannot be recycled and end up in landfills. Retrocycle replaces disposable cups with a shared reuse system where customers borrow a reusable cup at one café and return it anywhere in the network. The company manages cup design, inventory, distribution, signage, and café onboarding, making the system simple for both businesses and customers.
Retrocycle partners directly with municipalities such as Breckenridge, Vail, and Steamboat to align with local climate goals and help fund reuse programs. The result is a turnkey, town-branded system that reduces waste, lowers café costs, and makes sustainable behavior easy.
Our target market is municipalities, cafés, and environmentally conscious communities in the U.S. who need practical alternatives to single-use packaging and are willing to pay for waste reduction, cost savings, and climate impact.
Our competition is single-use packaging, small independent reuse programs, and deposit-return systems. Our competitive advantage is a turnkey, town-wide reuse network that combines municipal partnerships, café onboarding, and centralized logistics.
The total market size in 2024 is the U.S. food service packaging and waste reduction market, and the total market revenue in 2024 is $25B+.
Top 3 challenges:
- Scaling operations and logistics across multiple Colorado towns at the same time
- Building sustainable funding through a mix of municipal support, philanthropy, and earned revenue
- Driving behavior change so residents and visitors consistently use and return reusable cups
Our PitchBoulder ask: We are laying the groundwork for a future customer app to support rewards and engagement within the reuse network. If you have app engineering experience and are interested in contributing to an impact-driven, community-focused project, we would love to connect. We also welcome feedback on scaling civic and climate-focused business models.
