Loop, the global reuse platform, is moving in-store for the first time with the world's largest retailers, including Carrefour (France), Tesco (UK), AEON (Japan), Kroger (U.S.), and Woolworths (Australia). This transition marks the conclusion of Loop's pilot and the beginning of the reuse platform's next phase of growth. At the completion of this transition, the reuse platform will be in-store across five countries and on four continents. "Loop's goal has always been to grow, scale and be accessible to consumers around the world," says Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle and Loop. "With the world's largest retailers bringing Loop to physical brick and mortar locations, we are giving consumers what they've been asking for since Loop was introduced in 2019 – the ability to purchase the products they use every day in durable, reusable containers, with the convenience of shopping at their local market."

New Practitioners Guides

Separately, to continue scaling the reuse economy, TerraCycle and Loop collaborated with a multi-stakeholder consortium of leading consumer product companies, cities, and civil society organizations under the leadership of the World Economic Forum's Consumers Beyond Waste initiative, to develop three practitioners guides which are being launched. The City Playbook, Design Guidelines and Safety Guidelines for Reuse contain expert guidance and practical tools to help accelerate the adoption of reusable products and systems towards scaling innovative business models, such as Loop. The three papers will be available for download on the World Economic Forum website. "We are proud to release these three landmark community papers which we hope will offer valuable guidance to practitioners and stakeholders seeking to advance reuse solutions worldwide. It has been inspiring to see the development of these works thanks to the tremendous effort and cooperation among Forum's Consumers Beyond Waste vibrant multistakeholder community of leading consumer companies, policy makers and NGOs," added Zara Ingilizian, head of Shaping the Future of Consumption Platform, World Economic Forum.

Expansion Around the World

Loop's movement to an in-store retail model began in Paris, France with Carrefour in December 2020. In May 2021, Loop launched in-store at AEON in Japan and in-store at Tesco in September 2021. The global reuse platform will also expand into Kroger stores in the United States before the end of 2021. In 2022 the platform will be in-store at Woolworths in Australia. Additionally, Loop recently launched a reusable packaging partnership with McDonald's in the United Kingdom and is slated to launch with Burger King and Tim Hortons in select restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, respectively. With Loop's in-store shopping, customers will purchase their products in refillable, reusable containers found in Loop-specific aisles at retail partner locations. After they consume the products, they will drop off the empty packaging back at the store. Loop will then pick up the empty containers from the store to be cleaned, refilled, and made available for purchase by a new shopper.