This national convention switched from compost to reuse—and loved it.
Rachel Comeaux had been hearing the buzz about r.World for a while so, as a passionate advocate for sustainability at INFRA, The Independent Natural Foods Retailers Association, she made it a priority to bring reusables to their 2024 conference.
As a sustainability expert, she understood that the compostable cups and to-go boxes they’d used at past INFRA conferences weren’t actually as sustainable as everyone had hoped they’d be. They were still single-use, and they weren’t always composted correctly.
So she helped convert the gathering to reusables instead.
“I really believe reuse is the future,” Rachel says. “And I thought it would be a fun thing to do at our conference, to get this in front of our members and show them this is a very viable option.”
Planting the seeds of reuse
So Rachel reached out to r.World. With nearly 370 members, representing more than 650 storefronts across the U.S. (including Puerto Rico), INFRA 2024 was the perfect place to plant more seeds for the reuse movement in a community that cares deeply about the environment.
“I really believe reuse is the future.”
On the first night, members enjoyed their drinks from r.World’s reusable cups, and ate out of reusable food boats. Over the following days, they used r.World’s hot cups and cold cups, in place of the compostables they’d used in the past. They also used r.World’s reusable clamshells for lunch.
“We can never go back.”
In just one four-day conference, INFRA was able to prevent more than 10,000 single-use cups and containers from going into landfills.
“Everybody on our staff was saying how cool it was,” Rachel says. “They’d never seen anything like it. They thought it was really fun to be at the forefront of change.”
What’s more, the implementation was seamless.
Haley Craig, INFRA’s Events and Education Specialist, who helped put on the conference, felt great about their experience with r.World reusables. “We can never go back,” she said.
“The process was easy. The communication was easy. I would definitely recommend r.World.”
Attendees loved getting to experience reusables
Feedback from INFRA’s members was equally upbeat.
“Our members thought it was really innovative. Some of them come from small towns, and had never seen anything like it before. It was all positive feedback,” Rachel says.
After the conference, INFRA members headed back to their home states not only with the usual energy and ideas, but with a personal experience of how reusables can truly reduce their impact on the environment.
