• Loop, the "circular shopping platform" developed by recycling company TerraCycle, launched its e-commerce site Wednesday and announced Kroger and Walgreens as its founding retail partners at a press conference in New York City Tuesday.

Many of P&G’s largest global brands, including Tide, Cascade and Crest, will participate in the circular e-commerce sustainable platform, the company says in a news release. Developed by Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle, the platform will collect and recycle items, including toothbrush heads and razor blades, “creating circular solutions that help eliminate waste.”

Loop was announced in January by recycling specialist TerraCycle, whose CEO Tom Szaky recently said: “Plastic is not the evil. The evil is using something once.” Pilots launched this week in the northeastern United States, with Kroger and Walgreens as new partners, and in Paris, with another planned later this year in the United Kingdom. With any luck, this new approach to product packaging will catch on and become a new normal for many of our everyday products.

Loop, a first-of-its-kind circular shopping system created by TerraCycle in partnership with major retailers and brands, on May 21 officially launched its pilot program in the Mid-Atlantic region of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C. To celebrate the launch, TerraCycle and Loop’s retail and brand partners held a press conference and reception at the World Economic Forum in New York City.

When consumers sign up for the pilot–either through a new platform called Loop or through Kroger or Walgreens (you can also add your name to the wait list if you live elsewhere)–the products will arrive at their house in a reusable shipping tote, , and then someone can schedule a pickup to send the packaging back to be sterilized and reused. In theory, it’s not much more difficult than throwing out single-use packaging. Despite the extra shipping, Terracycle, a recycling company that is one of the partners in the project, has calculated that the carbon footprint of the process will be far less than that of typical packages. Because the products involved in the pilot are large brands, the companies testing the idea are hoping to reach a larger audience than some niche refillable concepts already on the market.

Herbal Essences hair care users nationwide can mail empty bottles to Trenton-based recycler TerraCycle for free through a new program.

But Tom Szaky, the CEO and founder of TerraCycle, sees waste differently. His first legendary product was a worm-poop fertilizer for plant food, packaged in used beverage bottles. But that was just the beginning for Szaky. He realized that to become truly legendary, he needed to consider a bigger problem: how humans think about waste.

If you were hoping to place an order from Loop on its opening business day, good luck. The circular shopping platform launches in the New York region today, Tuesday, May 21, and there are only a few thousand U.S. memberships available for the first U.S. round of orders — but about 60,000 hopefuls on the global waitlist. To learn more about the milkman-inspired platform, Green Matters spoke with Loop's VP of Global Business Development, Tony Rossi.

You don’t have to shop exclusively at a thrift store to be eco-friendly. Research recycled products and support eco-friendly companies that are striving to create a more sustainable, less wasteful world. Some of the biggest names to check out include Green Toy’s, Allbirds and Terracycle.

The collected cigarette butts are then recycled through a program offered by TerraCycle — a company that bills itself as specializing in the recycling of typically non-recyclable waste.