For example, when Loop — TerraCycle’s new durable, refillable shopping platform — launches in the United Arab Emirates, it may be under a design message: This is the future of product design.

Finding ways to make products last rather than dispose of them

Several major manufacturers are onboard for the circular use pilot. The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) has added two of its popular products to the list of items available through the TerraCycle Loop circular sustainable shopping pilot program. First announced at the World Economic Forum in January, Loop enables consumers to purchase commonly-used products in customized, durable packaging that is delivered in a reusable shipping tote. The initiative aims to establish a new model that supports responsible consumption and ends society’s dependence on disposability. Once products are used, consumers place the packaging in a special tote for free pickup, then Loop hygienically cleans the packaging, replenishes the products and returns them to the consumer. TerraCycle partnered with UPS to design its reusable, easily-cleanable tote to handle both liquids and dry goods over multiple uses, Recycling Today reported. The pilot program is available in the mid-Atlantic region of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Clorox crisp lemon disinfecting wipes and Hidden Valley Original Ranch topping and dressing will be available through the program, and the company plans to add a Glad food protection product to the platform later this year. Other products available through the Loop program include Procter & Gamble brands including Tide detergent, Cascade dishwashing products, Pantene haircare items and Oral-B dental care. “We are building on more than 180 years of innovation and world-class consumer insight to enable responsible consumption at scale,” Carolyn Tastad, P&G’s(NYSE: PG) Group President - North America, said. “We’re proud to partner with TerraCycle as the first CPG company to be part of this program as we work to accelerate sustainable innovation and explore new circular solutions that consumers love.” Companies including Unilever, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Danone, Mars Petcare, Mondelēz International are also onboard, per CNN, for a total of about 300 products. The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) and Walgreens (NASDAQ: WBA) are founding retail partners with Loop, and consumers in the pilot region can shop for products through www.thekrogerco.com/loop orwww.walgreens.com/loop, and in the future, the retailers hope to enable consumers to purchase Loop products in stores in select locations.  

A grocery order where products are delivered undamaged – yet spawn no disposable packaging destined for  the trash or recycling bin after use – is the future envisioned by TerraCycle. The waste management expert launched the embodiment of this vision last year in a project called Loop. The platform is a home-delivery service that offers consumers the option of avoiding single-use models when doing groceries by delivering products in durable, reusable packaging.

• What if consumers didn't have to dispose their empty plastic containers but could return them and get them refilled?
• That's the idea behind Loop, a subscription delivery service from waste management company TerraCycle.
• Loop has signed up several giant consumer-goods makers to have their products delivered via the service.
• It's a new spin on the milkman deliveries of yore, except with consumer goods from shampoos to sodas.

One year after China banned plastic waste from the U.S. and other developed countries, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Unilever and other consumer giants are collaborating with a new service that gives consumers a way to shop and achieve zero waste. It's called Loop — a subscription delivery project directed by waste management company TerraCycle that launches in May with the blessing of the World Economic Forum. It was announced in January at Davos, where TerraCycle CEO Tom Szachy pitched his idea to the world's biggest consumer companies — some of the most notorious repeat offenders on climate change. "We wondered is recycling the answer to waste? And we realized it's good at solving the symptom of garbage, but not the root cause, which is disposability," Szachy told CBS MoneyWatch. "And that got us to thinking of disposability and what could be the solution." Instead of throwing away packaging after it's been used once, Loop delivers over 300 consumer goods in reusable packaging. Shoppers can purchase Tide detergent, Dove deodorant, Coca-Cola soda or Häagen-Dazs ice cream that will be delivered to their doorsteps in tote bags. It's a new spin on the milkman deliveries of yore, except with just about any consumer good. Buyers can eat the ice cream, drink the soda, launder their clothes and then put the empty containers back into the tote bags for pickup. Loop retrieves the bags, sterilizes the containers in its warehouses and refills them before shipping them out to consumers again. Users wouldn't even have to clean the containers, like they would for recycling. "We don't want you to change your consumer behavior," Szaky said. Loop plans to roll out mid-May in Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, and London in September. Loop plans to launch in Canada, Japan, Germany and more U.S. regions in 2020.

Solving a recycling crisis

The program is launching more than one year after China's ban on accepting plastic waste in January 2018 put the whole U.S. recycling system in a tailspin. The U.S. had shipped its recyclable plastic and cardboard overseas for more than 25 years. In 2016 alone, China took 760 million tons of plastic off U.S. hands. While Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have picked up where China left off, those countries don't have waste management systems sophisticated enough to handle U.S. plastic scrap. Now, the U.S. is facing a wake-up call, having to develop new ways to manage its waste. Many cities and towns across the nation are even forgoing recycling or scaling back on programs as a response. All that has added pressure on consumer-goods giants, especially because environmentalists never saw the recycling industry as an ideal solution. While items like glass bottles can be recycled back into new glass bottles, products made with plastic are often recycled into lower quality plastic goods or they aren't accepted by waste management programs. That means recycling can barely make a dent in the sheer weight of plastic waste. "When they say, 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,' 'Recycle' is in the last place for a reason," said Michelle Stevens, owner of the Refill Shoppe in Los Angeles, California, which refills products for customers.   Nestlé spent one year developing the new stainless steel packaging for Häagen-Dazs ice cream. LOOP

The design challenge for reusability

Whether the consumer-goods companies keep participating in Loop will depend on how subscription users use the service. While the products' prices are expected to remain the same, shoppers will have to pay a deposit for the packaging that will be refunded once the package is returned. The deposit can change depending on the price of packaging. For example, Nestlé will charge $6.49 for its Häagen-Dazs ice cream, with a $5 deposit for the container. "We're assessing the willingness to pay to cover the cost," said Kim Peddle Rguem, president of the ice cream division of Nestlé USA. But Nestlé is hoping that a new stainless-steel ice cream container it has designed will give customers an experience that brings them back. The dual-canister container is supposed to keep the ice cream cold and let it melt from the top once opened, as opposed to the sides. The container itself should be warm to the touch. Rguem declined to say how much Nestlé has invested in Loop or how much it's paying TerraCycle to clean and refill the product. But she did say the company has already dedicated one year of time and resources to develop the new packaging. It will have about 20,000 containers ready to go when Loop launches. "The fact that it's available in this way, which also reduces waste, is exciting for us," Rguem said. "We know consumers are interested in this."

Established in 2001, recycling/upcycling and waste management company TerraCycle has grabbed headlines for its ability to recycle the “non-recyclable” and its partnerships with some of the biggest brands like Nestlé, Coca Cola, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Clorox, Mars and PepsiCo.

Our second day in Paris was chock-full of rich panel discussions with brands trading stories of the evolution of ideas and lessons learned — and still to be learned — on the long, windy road to creating a sustainable consumer economy.

Businesses can help people live a good life. But what does that really mean?

L-R: Joanna Yarrow, Alicia Combaz, Giulio Bergamaschi and Rob Cameron An underlying and ongoing theme of this and other Sustainable Brands events around the world — how to help people lead “the good life” — took centre stage once more here in Paris. As session moderator Rob Cameron, CEO at the advisory firm SustainAbility, said in opening the conversation, money is often a key to unlocking happiness and helping people to lead a good, healthy and sustainable life. For centuries, companies have worked tirelessly to develop products that can be manufactured and sold in a way that is economically sustainable for the business, and affordable for the consumer. But, as Giulio Bergamaschi — global president of Biotherm, part of the L'Oréal Group — asked: In a new context of resource scarcity, global warming and mass biodiversity loss, can the planet afford affordable products?

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It has been a key factor in the success of Biotherm, a business with moisturising products built on one key ingredient which is both natural and scarce: Plankton. Back in 1952, the business found a way of taking plankton from the sea, and applying a bio-fermentation process to it in the laboratory that multiplies and amplifies it. “We used science and innovation to take something natural and make it widely available without causing any harm,” Bergamaschi said. “You can’t be truly affordable if you’re not affordable for the planet. And you can’t just think about the cost to the company. You must also think about the cost to society and the planet.” Listening to customers’ concerns and demands in terms of social and environmental issues can be used to “bring you up” and help to create positive change, he added. “We have to use the influence of our customers to help us improve.” Fellow panelist Alicia Combaz agreed: Citizens have more power to participate in helping to get things done that will help them to lead a happier life. The organisation she co-founded, make.org, is built on the fundamental belief that politics is not enough anymore to drive real action. Instead, it asks individuals to submit ideas as part of mass consultations. This can throw up a range of things they want to change in the world – from access to healthy diets, to the end of violence against women – and asks its huge community to collectively build a plan to make things happen. “There is something wrong with our democracies right now. So, we need to take the energies from people to do something for our democracies, to make them sustainable,” she said. For Joanna Yarrow, head of sustainable & healthy living at IKEA, it is business that has the defining role in allowing people to live better lives. Established 75 years ago, the Swedish furniture store has long held a vision of creating better lives for normal people by selling them affordable products. The company’s Live Lagom project, which helps customers and staff make small changes to how they live their lives that will make them – and the planet – happier, embodies this vision well. Yet surprisingly, Yarrow revealed that IKEA products are only “affordable” to a quarter of people in the markets where it has stores. This has prompted the retailer to devise new ways of transacting with customers by rethinking ownership, sharing or leasing products, and providing services rather than simply selling people more stuff. But this journey demands a new narrative, she asserted. “In the 21st century, it is very clear that sustainable living cannot be a luxury. If it’s niche, or elite, or for ‘the few’, we are not going to be sustainable,” Yarrow said, adding that radical changes are needed within business over a very short period of time. “We need to widen the conversation, make it relevant, attractive and affordable – at a scale and speed we could not have envisioned even five years ago.” Bergamaschi agreed, highlighting the specific challenge of making sure that consumers in Asia– where much of the economic growth will come from in the future – see sustainable products as desirable.

CSR … Sustainability … Purpose: What’s the difference and why does it matter?

  L-R: Andrew Wilson, Alexandre Kouchner (moderator), Virginie Helias, Thomas Kolster | Image credit: Twitter CSR has long held different meanings for different organisations. For many, it started as a separate programme, to generate social or environmental benefits in the areas in which the company operated, but was separate from its core business activities. At a roundtable discussion during Wednesday morning’s Fair and Inclusive session, Virginie Helias, Chief Sustainability Officer at P&G, claimed the very title of CSR causes a problem. She explained: “‘Corporate’ sounds disconnected from the business and the brands; ‘Social’ suggests philanthropy, which is not sustainable; and ‘Responsibility’ means it is the right thing to do, but according to who?” Borne out of a sense of responsibility, it is no surprise that CSR has such a responsibility focus. Thomas Kolster, CEO and founder of Goodvertising, claims that this is the difference between CSR and sustainability: “CSR is stuck in the responsibility framework, whereas sustainability is about possibility.” Andrew Wilson, Executive Director of Purpose at Edelman, asserted that it is not a case of CSR being wrong, rather that it has not done enough: “CSR is necessary but not sufficient. We now have unprecedented levels of urgency, with a dramatic shift in power and politics, so that business has to change.” An imperative for this change is speed, Kolster said: “What young people want is for change to happen much faster. The new leadership is moving from being a missionary to an enabler. Most of the company commitments to achieve something by 2030 or 2040 are not moving fast enough.” As sustainability becomes embedded into core business operations, the focus for engaging with consumers has shifted to purpose. Wilson explained how he helps brands identifies purpose. “I ask companies, ‘What would the world miss if you weren’t here? What is your unique contribution?’ Purpose should be the intersection of your business strategy, your impact on people and planet, and your ability to bring change. If all three are aligned, you have a strong sense of purpose.” The next stage is to extend a company purpose to individual brands. Helias said: “We have just launched Ambition 2030, aiming to enable and inspire positive impact on the environment and society — for example, by asking consumers to reduce their carbon footprint. Each of the brands are defining their own ambition. Herbal Essences’ ambition is to enable people to experience natural products and protect biodiversity. The brand is endorsed by Kew Gardens, the world leader in botanical science, which is important to provide tangible proof of becoming an agent of change.” Tangible proof includes action — not only words — towards supporting people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. REI first took the decision to close all of its stores on Black Friday in 2015, launching the #OptOutside campaign. Wilson viewed this as a great example of living purpose: “They knew that consumers had bought their stuff and instead of encouraging them to buy more, they encouraged them to go outside and use it. They didn’t name the enemy. They just said, “Let’s go outside and enjoy ourselves’.” So, does purpose mean that all companies now have to become activists? Kolster disagreed: “I don’t agree with activist brands. Sustainability is about inclusion, not exclusion. Brand activism is a hero trap. Nike and Apple can break any rule in the marketing rule book because they are that brand. Don’t ever copy the legends.” Purpose, therefore, goes beyond what companies can do to make their products sustainable and is more about helping consumers make their lives more sustainable. Kolster said: “The question of who can help customers becomes so pivotal. The greatest achievement is to get people to change their behavior — making the consumer the hero, not the brand. Looking at people’s lives is the secret to building strong purposeful brands.” Supporting consumers with their sustainable purpose is a more personal extension of ensuring responsible business. However, as with CSR and sustainability, the interesting question remains: How do you measure the impact of purpose?

It’s Time to Start Loving Waste, Not Hating It

Tom Szaky and Virginie Helias dive into the Loop platform Tom Szaky, the shaggy-haired, enigmatic founder of TerraCycle, made a really good point as the afternoon’s first Virtuous Value Chain session kicked off here at Sustainable Brands Paris. Addressing the packed auditorium, he asked: “How many of you here dreamt about working in garbage when you left school?” The absence of hands being held aloft raised an interesting point about our relationship with rubbish, and the lack of creative and innovative minds that have been applied to solving the world’s waste problems. “We’re built to be repulsed by waste, so nobody ever wants to work in it,” he said. “But it’s the only industry that will own everything soon — everything you see, from the floor, to the lights, to the clothes you’re wearing; it will soon be the property of the garbage industry.” The fireside chat and roundtable discussion that followed was thankfully stuffed full of innovation. Virginie Helias, P&G’s chief sustainability officer, took to the stage for an impressive double act presentation with Szaky, in which they presented the newly launched Loop project. Co-developed by the consumer goods giant and TerraCycle, Loop is a shopping platform that enables people to buy everyday daily items in packaging that is durable and recycled. Operating on a subscription model, users simply send back their used packaging and replenish their shampoos, washing tablets, etc as and when they need them: “It builds on the idea of the milkman who would deliver reusable bottles and then pick them up to be refilled. Well, Loop is the milkman reimagined for consumables,” Helias said. Just like the milkman, Loop cleans the empty packaging you send back so it’s ready for reuse, instead of ending up as waste after a single use. Clearly excited to be able to work with a giant business such as P&G to really make such a system work, Szaky said Loop challenges the concept of ownership. “You buy shampoo, but you also get a bottle that you don’t want,” he said. “Yes, reuse is about durability when it comes to packaging. But it’s also about great design. “Plastic is not the evil. The evil is using something once.” Loop has been a real journey for Helias and her team. She needed external advocates to sell the concept internally and win support. “We took Tom on a tour of the company, going into each business to explain the idea,” she said. Then, making a public announcement as to its ambition – at the World Economic Forum in Davos – created a real sense of urgency. “We researched the idea behind Loop with consumers for two years,” Helias explained. “This is about reinventing consumption. We’ve made it responsible, but also irresistible. Now, we want more brands to join in.”   L-R: Alexis Olans Haass, Tom Szaky, David Amar, Clemence Sanlis (moderator) | Image credit:Twitter Next, it was adidas’ turn to present its own innovation in solving the waste challenge. Alexis Olans Haass, the company’s director of sustainability for global brands, held in her hand an early version of a new FUTURECRAFT trainer. Unlike other similar products that are made from 12 different types of material in 70 different parts, this new product is made of just one: a version of thermoplastic polyurethane, or TPU. And that’s because adidas wants to create a truly circular trainer, with each new pair made from the last. It’s not quite there yet, as Haass refreshingly admits, as the company tries to increase the percentage of recycled material going into the production. But to make the product work and to get it onto shelves, a new business model is required, as well as a different mindset from consumers. “The word ‘education’ sounds parochial, but creating a new business model will include education of consumers,” she said. “It’s more about creating incentives, so that people have continuous reminders and the right information to make it easier for them to send their trainers back to us, so that we can reuse the material. It needs to land as a concept with Average Joe.” In wrapping up, Szaky made the point that waste infrastructure must also play catch up: “We need recyclers to want the shoes — not just for recycling of these materials to be technically possible, but also practically possible.”

How to value, and identify, the virtuous value chain

When it comes to virtuous value chains, it appears the virtue can be identified in a variety of ways. The ‘How to value the virtuous’ roundtable on Wednesday afternoon introduced three concepts of virtuous value chains, from the historical, to the technological, to virtue being the reason for existing at all. According to Ynzo van Zanten, Choco Evangelist at Tony’s Chocolonely, at his company the virtue existed before the value chain. He said “The company’s mission is to make an impact, and chocolate is just the way we choose to do it. We are not a chocolate maker. Callebaut makes the chocolate. We are an impact maker.” Launched 14 years ago in the US, Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate is made by Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut, with cocoa beans from Tony’s Chocolonely partner co-operatives in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. It is marketed solely on its mission: Together, we make 100% slave free the norm in chocolate. van Zanten confirmed: “We only do marketing towards our mission or purpose. We want people to get triggered by what we are about.” Empowering people to believe they can make a difference, the company’s website calculates how many cocoa beans are in each chocolate bar, to help illustrate the impact a purchase has made. Providing an example of a more historical virtuous value chain, Carlo Galli, Head of Sustainability at Nestlé Waters, spoke about the history of preserving water resources. He said: “The brands are historical brands, like Perrier and San Pellegrino. For years, it’s been about sustainably managing the water resources. When you manage a water source for so many decades, you have to transfer the knowledge from person to person. This is the concept we have to sell to the consumer.” Galli stressed that while a single company can achieve water management, water stewardship is an inclusive stakeholder approach. He explained: “The story started when we understood that working on efficiency in our factories was not enough. We discovered that we should be more collaborative. We saw an opportunity with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS), created a common language for water stewardship, and committed last year to be AWS-certified through all our factories.” Poignantly, the roundtable was held on Fashion Revolution Day, the six-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1,138 people and injured another 2,500. That led to the Fashion Revolution campaign, urging consumers to ask brands, ‘Who made my clothes?’ Neliana Fuenmayor, founder and CEO of A Transparent Company, recognises the activism amongst young people. She said: “We are seeing this urgency, where digital natives are using the power they have of the internet and the phone in their hand. They are saying, ‘We are not going to wait until we have jobs and titles to change the world — we are going to do it now’.” Fuenmayor brought her experience in technology to fashion supply chains. She said: “Having been involved in tracking fish on blockchain, I decided to bring this to fashion. In 2017, we tracked the first garment on blockchain to see how it could help transparency. It took at least a year for the fashion industry to take it in. Now, there are a few pilots happening in organic cotton. We believe blockchain can help data be verifiable.” For Fuenmayor, it’s about remembering the three T: “Traceability, transparency, to gain trust. Brands are always looking to gain trust. For traceability, you need the information to be verified. If you are tracking from a cotton seed to the final T-shirt, you need smart labels to prove this. At the retail stage we use QR codes, and in two years’ time we will see more of contactless.” Three approaches for three industries, all seeking to achieve a virtuous value chain.

Courtesy of Loop Plastic pollution is one of our greatest environmental threats. These companies are fighting back Remember when the idea of bringing reusable grocery bags to the store felt impossible? Look how far we have come! However, there is so much more to do to mitigate consumers’ reliance on single-use plastics. These companies are changing the way we think about packaged goods, from ice cream containers to takeout boxes. We’re betting that these forward-thinking startups are poised to make a huge impact on single-use plastics and forever change consumers’ habits.

Loop

You heard it here first: Loop is going to revolutionize packaging. Loop is a first-of-its-kind shopping system that delivers consumer goods, like food and cleaning products, in multi-use containers that are then collected, cleaned, refilled, and reused. It’s like the milkman model of yore, but on a much larger scale. The company is a collaboration between TerraCycle and several major consumer product brands, like Proctor & Gamble, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mars Petcare, The Clorox Company, and Coca-Cola. Loop’s goal is to create a “zero-waste option for the world’s most popular consumer products while maintaining affordability, improving convenience, and returning disposable or durable items to a circular life cycle.” Loop launches in spring 2019; sign up at loopstore.com.

There’s a common thought that for a brand to be sustainable, it has to sacrifice something along the way. Maybe it’s a certain material, or a slice of the profit, or a sense of luxury. But why do we operate under that assumption? Maybe it would help to take the word sustainable out of the conversation; it’s been overused and abused enough that few consumers really understand what it means. Here are some better words for it: timeless, resilient, durable. Those instantly sound a lot more appealing. And to make something timeless or durable—whether it’s a glass bottle or a dress—you’ll inevitably select the best materials, the best craftsmen, the best technology.   That’s the realization Tom Szaky, the CEO of TerraCycle came to when he and his team were dreaming up their latest venture, Loop, an e-commerce platform that will offer familiar single-use products—dish soap, shampoo, beverages—in reusable, re-fillable packages. “[At TerraCycle] we’ve been recycling materials and making products out of recycled materials for 16 years, but we got to this reflection point where we asked ourselves, ‘Is what we’re doing the solution to waste?’ ” he explains. “Recycling is a solution to the system of waste, but not the root cause. It’s like taking Tylenol every morning because you have a migraine. The Tylenol is a solution to the symptom, but you aren’t solving the reason you have a migraine.”   The earth’s “migraine” is the climate crisis, and you could say the “Tylenol” is the persistent greenwashing and meager efforts from global brands to reverse it. The root cause isn’t one specific thing, like fast fashion or air travel; more broadly, it’s our culture of disposability. That refers to the single-use plastics we throw away immediately and the clothing we dispose of almost as fast. “Disposability really emerged around the 1950s,” Szaky explains. That’s when plastic came into regular use as a cheaper alternative to glass or metal in our daily items. Fast fashion didn’t emerge quite that long ago, but the concept of disposability—and a lack of concern for the items being disposed of—eventually trickled into our closets, too. In the 1920s, an average middle-income woman might have purchased two or three items a year and wore them for 10 to 20 years. Now, the same woman is buying 65 items of clothing per year and, on average, wears each garment three times, according to Szaky. “It’s not just fashion, it’s everything,” he continues. Almost every item we consume has gone the way of disposability: Consider the makeup you buy at Sephora, which is likely packaged in non-recyclable plastic. Decades ago, it came in crystal containers or a refillable tube. Milk is another good example: It used to be delivered in glass bottles, which were later picked up to be refilled, but in the ’50s, glass bottles were replaced by single-use cartons and plastic jugs. “An interesting thing to point out is that back when you got milk in a glass bottle, you didn’t own the bottle—it was property of the dairy,” he adds. “They were financially motivated to make it a long-lasting and durable bottle. But when disposability took over, it shifted to the consumer owning the carton. Do you really want to own it, though? Do you want to own that coffee cup the minute it’s empty?” Um, no thanks. Shouldn’t the manufacturer be responsible for what happens to the product it’s selling? That’s where Szaky’s theory for Loop comes in: “If we switch ownership back to the manufacturer, magic happens,” he says. Ahead of Loop’s launch, he’s been working closely with brands like Pantene, Living Proof, Ren Skincare, Häagen-Dazs, and Procter & Gamble on durable, thoughtfully designed containers that can be sent back to to be refilled. Most of them look a lot better than their single-use counterparts, too: Ren’s best-selling body wash is now available in a sleek, recycled ocean plastic container that can be refilled; Pantene is finalizing a design for a luxe, refillable aluminum bottle with a matte gold finish; and your favorite Häagen-Dazs flavor will soon come in a double-wall steel pint instead of coated paper. And when you order those items online—granted you’re in New York or Paris, the first cities where Loop will be available—they will get delivered in a Loop tote, a soft, reusable shipping container that would replace the cardboard boxes you piled up in your lobby. We’re living in a time where everyone orders everything online, from toilet paper to makeup to meal kits, which means an excess of paper and plastic waste, not to mention harmful emissions from the planes, trains, and trucks involved. Instead of throwing away or “recycling” Loop’s shipping container, you’ll simply schedule a pick-up. As Loop expands into more cities, it could truly revolutionize e-commerce.

1/4 Maggie Marilyn’s non-plastic bags are made from cassava (root starch) and vegetable oil and can biodegrade in water. Photo: Courtesy of Maggie Marilyn The takeaway isn’t just that the tote and those reusable packages are the more sustainable options; they’re also better-looking and more luxurious, which is how you get customers to pay attention. “There’s a huge opportunity for design here that just isn’t possible in disposable packaging,” he says. “Durability enables reuse, which is always the best thing to do with an object, but it also offers unparalleled luxury. If you’re coming from a place of ‘being responsible’ or ‘solving your sins,’ progress is always going to be incremental. But forget sustainability—if you can win the consumer without it, that’s the golden ticket. If you divorce sustainability from a Tesla, it’s still a winner.” On a similar note, Blueland just launched with a mission to reduce our dependency on single-use plastic, starting with an elevated take on cleaning supplies. CEO and cofounder Sarah Paiji Yoo was horrified to learn about the micro-plastics in the water she used to make her son’s baby formula, but found it nearly impossible to eliminate plastic from her life. “I didn’t have any choices as a consumer because so many of our everyday products, like window cleaner, toothpaste, and laundry detergent, all come packaged one way: in single-use plastic,” she says. Her first solution for Blueland is the ingenious Forever Bottle, a shatterproof, refillable BPA-free plastic spray bottle: Fill it with water, drop in a coin-size cleaning tablet, and in minutes, you have a cleaning product ready to use. “I would love to move the consumer mindset from single-use consumption to one of reuse,” she continues. “I’m so excited that we’re living in a time where consumers are interested in where and how their products are made, and they view ‘better products’ as the ones that are sustainably sourced, manufactured, and sold.”   How does all of this relate back to fashion, exactly? As far as packaging is concerned, Loop’s reusable container sounds like a no-brainer solution to the boxes and plastic bubbles you normally receive in an e-commerce order. For now, only the brands on Loop’s platform will be able to ship with the reusable totes, but several designers are streamlining their packaging to cut down on waste, or they’re eliminating plastic altogether. Gabriela Hearst uses compostable TIPA bags in lieu of plastic, and Maggie Marilyn recently introduced a biodegradable cassava-root bag that dissolves in the water. You could say upcycling factors into Szaky’s model of reuse, too—see Marine Serre, Rentrayage, and Re/Done—and a few companies are integrating the concept into their newest products, like Adidas, which just launched a sneaker that can be recycled into another pair; For Days, a T-shirt subscription service that recycles your tees into new ones when you’ve worn them out; and Eileen Fisher, who gladly takes back her clothes to be spun into new garments. In these cases, like the glass milk bottle, you don’t really own the sneaker or the T-shirt; once you send it back to the brand, it’s their responsibility to properly reuse or recycle it.   Szaky also sees a future where Loop has partnered with major clothing companies and independent designers to “loan” out their inventory on the platform, similar to Rent the Runway. “The idea of fashion itself creates waste—we throw things away not because they’re worn out, but because we don’t like the fashion anymore,” he says. “We’re working with a few apparel brands, and it’s been really cool to see them wake up to this idea of rentals, like, ‘Wait a minute—if I can make a shirt that costs X, but it goes around [via rental] over and over again, it could make me hundreds of X in profit.’ And then you don’t have so much waste, and the consumer doesn’t have a closet full of crap.” He says a new approach to design will be crucial to actually achieve this: “If you make something trendy, fashion renders it waste,” he says. “Timeless design would become the focus [for designers], and quality and durability. An infinitely durable item is infinitely profitable.”

Loop’s revolutionary Tote, a reusable shipping container that could eventually replace cardboard and plastic packaging. Photo: Courtesy of Loop Of course, “timeless” means different things to different people. For some, it’s a little black dress, while others consider a leopard turtleneck to be pretty basic. And even if you can’t wrap your mind around the idea of renting all of your clothes—because that reality seems very, very far away—Szaky’s focus on high-quality, luxurious design should still resonate. It follows the commonly referenced idea that we should buy fewer, yet better pieces that are more expensive, more luxurious, and more carefully made, as opposed to constantly filling our closets with trendy fast fashion. Plenty of women already shop this way, and not necessarily because it’s a sustainable choice; it just leads to a better wardrobe, because it’s lined with items you truly love. So until your favorite designer is available to rent on Loop and is being shipped to your door in a Loop tote, that’s arguably the best way to consume more consciously—and always skip the plastic bag!

When we think of our wellness journey from a You. We. All.perspective, we’re inspired to build a better future for everyone (our planet included!). We know you want to help make a difference, so this year we've teamed up with Target in an exciting partnership to launch Social Good, a new platform where you’ll find stories on some of the most important social and environmental movements going on today. The cool part? Most of these stories include an actionable way you can help make the future brighter—right now.   This year, we’re using Earth Day as an opportunity to shed some light on all the good we’ve managed to accomplish in the first 111 days of 2019. Here are 19 environmental feats worth celebrating.

6. Brands signed onto the reusable economy.

In the not-so-distant future, you’ll be able to order household staples like cleaning supplies and ice cream in reusable packaging that will be collected from your doorstep once you’re done with it. It’s all thanks to Loop, a new initiative by recycling company TerraCycle that wants to make single-use packaging a thing of the past and already has buy-in from major players like Unilever, P&G, and PepsiCo.