Jeri
Stein

Jeri Stein received a Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Houston in the United States. After a decade in the private sector, Jeri co-founded Watering Minds, a non-profit organisation providing schoolchildren with access to clean drinking water in developing countries. Her international travels exposed her to the enormity of the global trash challenges. She began to investigate local waste management systems and discovered that Israel too is sick with trash. Now focused on reducing waste output, Jeri established REUZ.

PROJECT

REUZ is creating a business solution for the reduction of single-use products across Israel starting by implementing a system of reusable cups. Our exclusive, technology enabled system will reduce the use of one-time cups used in locations across the country.

REUZ has developed a technology-enabled reusable cup rental system that allows customers to check out and take their to-go-drinks in a reusable cup rather than a one-time cup. This service will be free of cost as long as the cup is returned within one week. Upon being returned, the REUZ cups will be washed and returned back into the system to be used 500+ times.  With over 262 million single-use cups being used each month in Israel, the ambition of REUZ is to offer an alternative that does not head to landfills and end up on our beaches. With Israel housing the 3rd most polluted coastline in the Mediterranean, the need to reduce our usage and subsequent disposal of one-time products is apparent. For the cups that make it into the waste system, the methods used to transport and process them, yield carbon emissions, which negatively impact the environment.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

While traveling for my non-profit organisation, I couldn’t help but notice the failing waste management systems not only in developing countries but also in many of the developed ones. This led to me begin researching to gain a better understanding of the challenges being faced in managing waste. I concluded a critical part of the solution is reducing by reusing. I turned to other countries that have a reputation for excelling in waste management to learn from them. I learned of reusable cup rental systems operating in multiple countries across the globe. I decided, with some modifications, this would be a perfect solution to bring to Israel. And so, REUZ was born.

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