TERRACYCLE NEWS

ELIMINATING THE IDEA OF WASTE®

Canada’s first contact lens recycling program kicks off

Bausch + Lomb, the global eye health company of Bausch Health Companies Inc., is partnering with recycler TerraCycle to launch a recycling program for contact lenses in Canada.   Called the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts recycling program – and available in select eye care offices across Canada – the joint initiative allows Canadians who wear contact lenses to recycle their traditionally non-recyclable disposable contact lenses and blister pack packaging.   “More than 290 million contact lenses end up in Canadian landfills or waterways yearly…and as more consumers switch to wearing daily disposable lenses, this number will increase significantly,” said Matt Nowak, director of sales and marketing, Bausch + Lomb Canada. “With the launch of the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts recycling program, they will finally be able to divert this waste away from landfills, lakes, rivers and oceans.   According to Bausch + Lomb, contact lenses and blister packs are considered non-recyclable through municipal facilities because they’re too small to be captured by standard sorting machinery. Through the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts recycling program, consumers can search for their nearest participating eye care professional on the interactive map found at www.terracycle.com/en-CA/brigades/bausch-and-lomb-en-cato recycle all brands of disposable contact lenses and blister pack packaging through that location.   After being collected at an Every Contact Counts recycling location, the contact lenses and blister packs are shipped to a TerraCycle recycling facility, where they’re separated and cleaned. The metal layers of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister pack components are melted into plastic, which can be remolded to create new products.   “Contact lenses are one of the forgotten waste streams that are often overlooked due to their size and how commonplace they are in today’s society,” said TerraCycle founder and CEO Tom Szaky. “By creating this recycling initiative, our aim is to provide an opportunity where whole communities are able to collect waste alongside a national network of public drop-off locations, all with the unified goal to increase the number of recycled contact lenses and their associated packaging, thereby reducing their overall impact on the environment.”   In addition to Canada, Bausch + Lomb also has similar contact lens recycling programs in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Australia.   TerraCycle is headquartered in Trenton, N.J.

Zero Waste Box helps local business tackle plastic beauty waste

A local business teamed up with global waste management company TerraCycle to help tackle the problem of plastic pollution in the beauty industry.   About 8 million tons of plastics enter oceans and marine environments annually — which, according to TerraCycle, is the same as dumping a garbage truck full of plastics into the ocean every minute of every day for a year.   In the beauty industry specifically, around 120 billion units of packaging are made each year, according to TerraCycle.   Plastic pollution has also been shown to have an impact on climate change, due to its contribution to global greenhouse gases.   Across the United States, small businesses are stepping up to combat the issue by better handling their waste.   Salacia Salts, a skin care and home fragrance shop in Savannah, is one of those small businesses.   They initially reached out to TerraCycle after discovering a lack of options in Savannah for recycling beauty products, especially the plastic kind, via curbside recycling or a municipal recycling program.         “I learned about TerraCycle when I was looking at different solutions on how to recycle different types of plastic packaging that was no longer recyclable in Savannah, and I found them as a major organization across the globe that was recycling really hard and difficult things, like cosmetic packages and compacts,” Salacia Salts founder Cari Phelps told WSAV.com Now.   TerraCycle offers several different types of Zero Waste Boxes to help with recycling difficult items, Phelps added.   The box Salacia Salts selected to add to their own store was geared the proper disposal of beauty product packaging.   Items like shampoo bottles, lip balm tubes, concealer sticks and eye shadow cases can be dropped inside.   “If you think about a cosmetic compact, there’s plastic, there’s glass, there’s metal, there’s tin, there’s all these different components, and it’s really hard to recycle in a local facility,” Phelps said.   “This box allows people to drop in a variety of different types of waste, and then they recycle it and turn it into really cool things, like toys or playground equipment,” she added.   The Zero Waste Box program helps another issue facing the beauty industry: “wishful recycling,”or “wish-cycling” for short.   “This phenomenon takes place whenever a well-meaning consumer tosses an item that they are unsure can be recycled—like an empty mascara container—into their curbside recycling bin in the hopes that it will be processed like any typical recyclable,” TerraCycle publicist Shaye DiPasquale told WSAV.com Now.   “In reality, this habit can be extremely counter-intuitive, since it places unnecessary stress on local municipal recycling facilities (MRFs),” DiPasquale said.   TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box program offers people an eco-friendly way to discard their beauty waste.   Phelps says they first received their box over the holidays, and so far, they’ve gotten a positive response from customers who have already started to bring in their old beauty products.   “A lot of people say they want to come in because they’ve got things to drop off,” Phelps said.   “And that’s part of it, too, just educating people that there is a place,” she said.   Once the box is filled, Salacia Salts then ships it back to TerraCycle with a prepaid shipping label, and from there, the beauty waste gets properly handled.   With millions of pounds of plastic reportedly going into the oceans every day, Phelps says everyone can make a difference if they reduce, reuse or recycle.   “I think it’s something important for our community,” she said.   “We live on the coast, we love our beautiful marshes and beaches and waterways, and I think if you feel like you can do something really small, even if it’s recycling something once a week or once a month, you feel like you’re doing something for your own community,” she said.

Local Business Takes Action Against Plastic Pollution Crisis

January 30, 2020 - The beauty industry has a plastic packaging problem. Zero Waste Week reports the global industry creates 120 billion units of packaging every year, most of which isn’t conventionally recyclable. Salacia Salts, a high quality collection of skin care and home fragrance products made with natural ingredients, has teamed up with TerraCycle to combat the beauty industry’s massive output of plastic products and packaging waste through the Zero Waste Box program.   “We care deeply about this beautiful planet that we get to call home,” says Salacia Salts CEO, Cari Clark Phelps. “We want to do what we can to restore our land.”   By placing the Beauty Products & Packaging Zero Waste Box inside their studio, Salacia Salts helps customers and Chatham County community members conveniently recycle their beauty empties and reduce their environmental impact. The zero-waste initiative aligns with the brand’s focus on sustainability and the conservation of Earth’s natural resources.   Salacia Salts uses post-consumer recycled packaging whenever possible with the goal of eliminating plastic from the product line. The first product developed for the company was a salt soak packaged in a reclaimed, “upcycled” wine bottle.   Like most plastic packaging, this conventionally unrecyclable beauty waste would have otherwise been landfilled, incinerated, or may have even contributed to the pollution of marine habitats. The collected beauty and skin care packaging will now be sorted, shredded and recycled into a variety of new products such as park benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and recycling bins.   TerraCycle, the world’s leader in the collection and repurposing of complex waste streams, created the Zero Waste Box program to provide solutions for difficult-to-recycle waste that cannot be recycled through TerraCycle’s brand-sponsored, national recycling programs or via standard municipal recycling.  Salacia Salts hopes to become a well-known spot for locals to recycle empty beauty products in an appropriate manner.   “The foundation of the company was built on my love and passion for sustainability,” says Phelps. “By recycling products appropriately, we are helping to alleviate waste in our water systems which leads to an overall happy and healthier lifestyle.”   More information regarding Salacia Salts can be found by visiting their website, https://salaciasalts.com/. All collected materials from the Zero Waste Box program are sent to TerraCycle for recycling, where they undergo a series of treatments before getting turned into new items. For more information on TerraCycle, please visit www.TerraCycle.com.   TerraCycle offers Zero Waste Boxes for nearly every category of waste. By purchasing Zero Waste Boxes, companies and consumers save trash from landfills and help reach TerraCycle’s goal of creating a waste-free world.

The Detox Market Joins The Climate Movement In A Big Way With Its Sustainability Starts Now Initiative

The Detox Market isn’t just talking about sustainability. It’s taking action to become more sustainable as a business and help protect the environment beyond its doors.

When Romain Gaillard, founder and CEO of the retailer, saw a blue-to-red visualization created by British scientist Ed Hawkins called Warming Stripes showing yearly increases in average global temperatures from 1850 to 2018 on the cover of The Economist in September, the dire threat of climate change crystallized in his mind. “I was born in 1980, and that’s where it starts to become pinkish and orange. I have two kids. They are 4 and 2. It’s purple red and very dark red in 2015 and 2017, the years they were born. Those are the warmest years ever recorded,” he says. “We all know about global warming, but this was really a big aha moment for me. From then on, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we could do.”   The Detox Market landed on a comprehensive effort it’s dubbed Sustainability Starts Now kicking off today that encompasses an initiative named Earth CPR to become carbon negative by planting 500,000 trees this year and 2.5 million by 2025 through nonprofit Eden Reforestation Projects, turning its seven stores into hubs for beauty product recycling in partnership with TerraCycle, evaluating operations to diminish its environmental footprint, assembling a selection of eco-friendly products, and putting up posters in lower Manhattan with the Warming Stripes visualization as well as installations in its locations to spur other people to have Gaillard’s aha moment.   “One thing we’ve been great at as a company is to make people aware of toxicity in personal care. Our next mission is to encourage people to switch to sustainable products. It’s clean beauty times 10,” says Gaillard. “When you have this aha moment, there’s no way back from it. I’m not saying that you will suddenly become like Greta Thunberg and travel by bike everywhere, but, with everything you do, you start to pay attention, and it can have a great impact.”       The Detox Market, which plans to open two locations this year, is certainly paying attention to the materials it relies on in an attempt to eliminate excess. For example, it’s swapped out disposable makeup applicators in its stores to bamboo versions, and nixed an insert in the packaging of its body care line Detox Mode to reduce potential waste. To incentivize beauty product recycling, The Detox Market is doling out loyalty points to customers who recycle in its shops. The products they recycle don’t have to be from brands available at The Detox Market. Credo has a similar recycling program.   Inside stores, The Detox Market is spotlighting an array of eco-oriented products from brands including OrganiCup, Meow Meow Tweet, David’s Natural Toothpaste, Erbaviva, Olas Oral Care, Stasher and Jungle Straws. It’s placing a refill station with Detox Mode hemp soap in stores, and selling a sustainability set for $30 featuring Stasher, Jungle Straws and Baggu. Gaillard says, “We curated beauty products along with products that aren’t beauty-related, but are products you use in your daily routine that we felt are great.” The Detox Market isn’t the first retailer to edit a collection of green products. Net-a-Porter’s Net Sustain assortment of 27 beauty and 45 fashion brands focuses on sustainable merchandise, and Farfetch has launched a sustainable category.       Gaillard estimates The Detox Market will spend roughly 2% of its revenues this year on activities to become carbon negative and closer to 10% on advertising to promote Sustainability Starts Now. “If just a few big companies follow what we are doing, it could make a very interesting change,” says Gaillard. “If we are planting half a million trees, that’s as if Ulta was planting half a billion trees, and Amazon was planting 10 billion trees. For us, it’s a very aggressive number.”   Asked about expected sales results from the Sustainability Starts Now effort, Gaillard responds, “I don’t know what we are going to see. I think we will see a lot of visibility. By visibility, it’s not necessarily for Detox Market, but about this problem to bring that to the center of the discussion. One thing we are good at is being loud about a specific problem. We were very loud about toxicity in personal care—and we still are—but my goal is to make as much noise as we possibly can now about sustainability.”       In their purchasing behavior, Gaillard doesn’t believe customers currently prioritize the eco-friendliness of products. However, he projects they will begin to prioritize it in the near future. “If you look at the Stripes and you fast forward five to 10 years, it’s clear it’s going to be beyond a priority,” he says. “There will be a time when consumers ask for complete transparency on the impact of companies on their communities and on the planet.”   To improve transparency at The Detox Market, the retailer is developing sustainability guidelines for the brands it stocks. “It’s not a black or white type of situation, that’s why it is complex. It would be hard to say, ‘No more plastic,’ and tell all the brands, ‘You have 60 days to remove plastic.’ We are working on what to do. My idea is to really encourage brands to join our movement and to find better solutions,” says Gaillard. “Packaging for small brands is complicated because the MOQs [minimum order requirements] are high. It can be that some small brands work together or work with us to get to higher MOQs, and we together convince packaging companies to work on sustainable solutions.”

Contact lenses now recyclable in Canada

TORONTO and TRENTON, N.J. – Bausch + Lomb has partnered with TerraCycle to launch contact lens recycling in Canada.   Through the joint initiative, Canadians who wear contact lenses now have a way to recycle their traditionally non-recyclable disposable contact lenses and blister pack packaging.   Contact lenses and blister packs are considered non-recyclable through municipal facilities because they are too small to be captured by standard sorting machinery. Through the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts recycling program, consumers can search for their nearest participating eye care professional on the interactive map found here to recycle all brands of disposable contact lenses and blister pack packaging through that location.   After being collected at an Every Contact Counts recycling location, the contact lenses and blister packs are shipped to a TerraCycle recycling facility where they are separated and cleaned. The metal layers of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister pack components are melted into plastic, which can be remoulded to create new products.   “More than 290 million contact lenses end up in Canadian landfills or waterways yearly,” said Matt Nowak, director, sales and marketing, Bausch + Lomb Canada.   “As more consumers switch to wearing daily disposable lenses, this number will increase significantly. Our customers and their patients are concerned about the environmental impact of the packaging going to landfills, and they want to act to protect the environment.”   “Contact lenses are one of the forgotten waste streams that are often overlooked due to their size and how commonplace they are in today’s society,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO, TerraCycle.   “Initiatives like the Bausch + Lomb Every Contact Counts recycling program allow eye care professionals and patients to work within their communities and take an active role in preserving the environment, beyond what their local recycling programs are able to provide. By creating this recycling initiative, our aim is to provide an opportunity where whole communities are able to collect waste alongside a national network of public drop-off locations, all with the unified goal to increase the number of recycled contact lenses and their associated packaging, thereby reducing their overall impact on the environment.”   In addition to Canada, Bausch + Lomb also has similar contact lens recycling programs in The Netherlands, the United States and Australia.

Projeto Patinho Verde 2020: Reciclar é preciso!

No ano passado apresentamos para vocês um projeto muito bacana que nasceu em nossa cidade. Um trabalho que tem como objetivo recolher materiais para reciclagem e ainda usar isso para gerar retorno financeiro para instituições beneficentes. E como quase tudo nesse mundo pode ser reciclado, o assunto também sofreu um “refresh” e atualizamos algumas informações para vocês.  A Ana e a Marina fizeram questão de trazer tudinho para nós. Acompanhe!!!!!

Garbage Crisis Will Bury Companies That Don’t Adapt, TerraCycle’s CEO Says

Garbage has become such a crisis that companies that don’t invest in long-term ways to reduce waste won’t survive, warns the founder and CEO of the recycling company TerraCycle.   “I believe that it won’t be industries or sectors that pivot versus die, but individual companies,” Tom Szaky told the Harvard Business Review in an interview. Companies like Nestlé S.A., Unilever and Procter & Gamble Co., who are working with TerraCycle, are making the tough choices that have costs in the short term but lay the foundation for their survival, he said. But many large U.S. food companies “are blind to what’s coming and will likely be overtaken by startups that are building their business models around the new reality that is emerging.” Investors understand that new ways of dealing with waste are needed and have poured more than $850 million into 20 startups in the sustainable packages and materials sector. With 18 billion pounds of plastic waste flowing into the oceans every year, the startups should find no shortage of customers.   TerraCycle, a private company that focuses on hard-to-recycle items, saw its revenue grow 30% in 2019 from a year earlier and expects similar growth this year. The Trenton, N.J. company’s Loop initiative, formed in mid-2019, works with brands to provide reusable packaging for common consumer items. Loop Global and TerraCycle U.S. each raised about $20 million last year from investors, he said.   “This is driven primarily by everything moving faster and companies wanting to go deeper versus big new surprises or new industries that have been asleep now waking up,” he said. Meanwhile, “investors are looking much more for authentic impact investments. This is entirely correlated to garbage becoming a crisis.”   Sustainability investing has become a requirement for business longevity, a switch in perspective from about 15 years ago when investors saw it as more of a charitable contribution, he said. And many companies think they have to get ahead of sustainability issues or face legislative measures.   Szaky said he expects about 90% of the 400 companies that have made the Ellen McArthur Foundation pledge — to make their products compostable, recyclable and reusable and eliminate their use of new plastic by 2025 — will fail. That’s because they’ll produce packaging that will be technically recyclable but the recycling systems won’t be able to process it, he said.   “That’s going to create a big reckoning that will piss off consumers even more, backfiring on brands,” he said.  
  • Nestlé said earlier this month that it would invest up to $2.05 billion to shift from virgin plastics to food-grade recycled plastics and accelerate the development of sustainable plastic products.
  • Unilever plans to halve the environmental footprint from the manufacture and use of its products by 2030.

MGA Entertainment Expands L.O.L Surprise! Recycling Program With TerraCycle

MGA Entertainment (MGAE) is moving forward toward its sustainability goals with an expansion of its L.O.L. Surprise! Recycling Program in partnership with TerraCycle.   The company kicked off the first day of the 71st Spielwarenmesse international toy fair in Nuremberg, Germany by revealing that the program will grow to include nine countries around the world. MGAE promises more details on its sustainability plans to be revealed throughout the year.   “As a leader in the toy and entertainment business we understand that we must lead the industry,” says Isaac Larian, CEO and founder of MGA Entertainment. “Not only are we looking to make products more sustainable, but we’re giving parents an easy and free way to recycle L.O.L. Surprise! packaging and products around the world.  We need to look to our products to help keep the world healthy and alive for the next generation of fans — this is critical for the company and one that we are focused on as it relates to all aspects of the product lifecycle.  Sustainability is a personal priority and an MGAE commitment.”   Launched last year, the TerraCycle partnership allows families to easily package and ship the 100% recyclable packaging and products used in L.O.L. Surprise! toys to TerraCycle, where it is cleaned and transformed into materials that can be used in the construction of play spaces, flower pots, park benches, and other innovative uses. Following its launch in the U.S., the L.O.L. Surprise! Recycling Program will be implemented globally in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK.

In a Circular Economy, Leaders Look to Eliminate Waste

Proponents of the circular economy say recycling isn’t enough to solve our waste issue. But how far are consumers willing to go with reusable packaging?

The circular economy is creating a buzz as startups pop up across the globe. But innovators are counting on consumers to opt-in, and behavior change isn't always easy. I gave the latest circular economy trend a try and found that it wasn't what I expected.   In 2014, I made a New Year's resolution to stop purchasing beverages in single-use plastic containers. A year later, I included snack food. But when I tried to go plastic-free, I was stumped. Plastic is everywhere. My local grocery store sold broccoli wrapped in plastic. I couldn't find the food, supplies, or things I wanted, without throwaway packaging — and I wasn't willing to part with my essentials. Since then, I've been keeping an eye out for innovative ways to reduce disposable plastic — a growing interest for consumers, to which innovators are responding.

Innovators Lead the Way

Some companies are making products from recycled materials, like Adidas, who partnered with Parley for the Oceans to make sneakers from ocean-plastic yarn. Others opt for making products that can be repaired, like FairPhone, which makes smartphones with modular, upgradeable components. Companies like LoopGreenToGo, and Humankind aim to reduce packaging waste by replacing disposable containers with tough ones and creating a system to return and reuse.   "The real garbage problem comes from the idea of disposables, and that is where we need to start." ANTHONY ROSSI, VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT, LOOP   Unlike the linear "take-and-trash" economy, the circular economy, also known as circularity, strives to cut waste completely while embracing alternatives like refurbishment, repair, and reuse. Experts argue that "recycling" doesn't always come into play because circularity isn't only about reducing trash. It takes into account resources. Recycling reduces an object down to the "material" level. The inherent value gained from other resource inputs like design, manufacturing, shipping, etc. is lost when an item is recycled. Proponents of circularity say "recycling is a last resort." Being steps ahead of me, tossing an item in the trash, wasn't even on their mind. "The idea of the circular economy is that we need to be preventing waste. Solid waste, but also waste that comes from inefficient systems or inefficient design," says Jennifer Russell, Assistant professor at Virginia Tech Department of Sustainable Biomaterials. She was a lead author on a UN report that quantified the benefits and impact of transitioning to a circular economy. She says while reuse and repair may be the most energy-efficient options, remanufacturing and refurbishment isn't too far behind. "Even in the most intensive remanufacturing process, it's still significantly less than the effort and energy required to make a brand new one. If we start to design (products) better, we can get more efficient at those circular processes, and we can reduce the impacts even more," Russell says, adding that of the products she surveyed, refurbishing industrial digital printers had the highest impact, which was still lower than building a new one.   Illustration by Andrew Brumagen / Freethink.

Changing Behavior

When I was in Durham, North Carolina, I gave GreenToGo a try. You can bring your own container to restaurants for leftovers, but the FDA doesn't allow restaurants to prepare take-out food in containers customers provide. Their only option is disposable containers, often of the plastic clam-shell variety. GreenToGo created a workaround. They stock restaurants with reusable take-out containers, then wash and sanitize them after they are returned by patrons at stations across downtown Durham. I ordered a sandwich from the restaurant Toast, to-go. Ordering was easy. For people that frequent downtown, it is just as easy to slip the container in the return bin during the next visit. Being a visitor, I made a special detour. Not everyone is as willing as I am to try a new system. Anthony Rossi, Loop's Vice President of Global Development, says that behavior change is one of the biggest challenges they face at Loop. The startup launched last year and is still in the early stages. "We don't believe in garbage, and we want to eliminate it," Rossi says. The company partnered with big brands like Clorox, Glad, and Haagen Dazs. Through a mail-order service, Loop offers patrons their favorite food or household supplies in durable — and admittedly adorable — reusable containers for a deposit. Then, they take the empty containers back, refund the deposit, and reuse the containers.   The US produces approximately 234lb of plastic waste per person per year. Studies show that if present trends continue there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills around the world by 2050. Photo Courtesy of Pixabay. "What remains to be seen, and something worth studying, and I think that it's true, even if you are making it more durable and cleaning it multiple times and shipping something slightly heavier, it's still going to create a net benefit from an environmental impact perspective, relative to if we just keep making things brand new," Russell says. Rossi says companies have honed their production and distribution down to a smooth, efficient process. Asking them to change... well, it takes a lot of convincing. What's more, Loop is also asking consumers to consume a product differently. "Innately people want to do the right thing. People don't like garbage," Rossi says, adding that, "Behavior change doesn't come easy. If we tried this three years ago, I'm not sure we would have had the reception we have."

Recycling Won’t Solve the Plastic Problem

Loop is a corporate startup of TerraCycle. Rossi says the idea was born during a company conversation about innovative recycling efforts. CEO Tom Szaky asked the team if recycling was the goal they should have in 50 years. The resounding answer was "no." "Recycling everything and making everything out of recycled content is a utopian idea. We are very far from that. The real garbage problem comes from the idea of disposables, and that is where we need to start," Rossi says.   A repurposed aluminum bottle for laundry detergent. Image courtesy of Loop. Daniella Russo, CEO of Think Beyond Plastic, says recycling plastic is a challenge. Today's low oil prices render new plastic the cheapest and most durable option for packaging. "Recycling (plastic) is non-viable economically because the recycled material is more expensive than the use of virgin plastic," she says, adding that metal, glass, and paper are economically viable because manufacturing them costs more than recycled material. What's more, plastic is a catch-22. It is durable and cheap but comes with a hefty waste burden and potential public health concerns due to chemicals that can leach into food or beverages stored in plastic containers. Think Beyond Plastics helps organizations find alternatives to plastic. "We're not against recycling, we just don't think it will solve the plastic problem. Not everything needs to be packaged and overpackaged in plastic," she says.

Eliminating Plastics Could Bring Additional Challenges

Still, plastic has its upsides. For example, a product's weight drives negative environmental impacts — heavier objects require more energy to produce and ship. But heavier doesn't always mean reusable, unless there is a system designed to collect and clean them. Recently, packaging designs have been evolving to be lighter and thinner. "Light-weighting" packages use fewer materials and less energy to manufacture and transport, when compared per unit, such as thinner plastic water bottles. Thin plastic wrap, which is so hard to avoid at the supermarket, has been shown to reduce food waste in commercial settings, Russell says. (At home, however, glass containers or Tupperware will work just fine.) Finally, plastic is durable and cheap. Companies can easily have it designed to meet their needs. So, it is a balancing act. Tipping the scale away from plastics will solve some problems, but could present additional challenges. I sat down to give Loop a try earlier this week. I planned to order my household essentials — granola, dried fruits, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. I'm a sucker for attractive packaging — and Loop nailed that one. I'll admit, doing laundry would be a lot more fun with a cute aluminum bottle of laundry soap. But as I added items to my virtual shopping cart, the cost, plus deposit made my jaw drop. Also, I couldn't find enough products that I wanted that would put me into the minimum order size for free shipping. The $15 shipping fee for small orders was the final dealbreaker. Rossi says there are 300 more products in development. I'm keeping an eye on Loop's progress and plan to try their subscription option when they have more of my favorites.