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!