The Loop system, created by New Jersey-based Terracycle, could change the way people consume goods.

By Kevin J. RyanStaff writer, Inc.@wheresKR

CREDIT: Terracycle

 

As the food industry looks for more and more ways to reduce its waste, a new service called Loop is making it easier on both the industry and consumer end to recycle re-usable containers. The service is a mashup of Amazon Fresh and your old-school milkman. When you order products through Loop, you'll receive them in new, reusable containers inside a special renewable tote. Once the contents are used up, you can schedule a delivery of new products as well as a pickup of the old containers. You just place them back into the tote, and they're taken back to their respective companies to be thoroughly sanitized and reused. Loop encompasses multiple industries and product types, including food. Several major food brands have signed on already, including Nestle (under Häagen-Dazs), Hidden Valley Ranch, Nature's Path, Hellman's Mayonnaise, and vegan producer Teva Deli. Other recognizable products on board include Tide, Axe, Dove, Degree, Clorox, and Gillette. The service is powered by global recycling organization TerraCycle, who already has the capability to help recycle these packages on an international scale. As a result, the implications for waste reduction are numerous, since producers no longer need to utilize as much plastic and raw materials for packaging, and consumers will send less of it to landfills as a result. Other services also exist that are helping to combat packaging waste through recycling. In Southern California, for example, startup BottleRocket will give you money for all of the recyclables you save. You can schedule a pickup through their site, and each time they collect, the resulting sum from the refund values can be converted into cash, gift cards, or a charity of your choice. Loop is scheduled to launch its service in the spring of 2019 in the United States and France. You can register on the company's site to join a waitlist and be notified when it's ready to go.

As record high and low temperatures are being recorded all over the globe and unrecycled plastic waste continues to pile up in the middle in the ocean, almost forming and entire plastic continent in itself, it’s pretty obvious that time’s up and action is needed as soon as possible. Recycling waste on the same scale as we have been doing until now seems to be a solution that is not effective enough. There’s a need for a radical change in the way we consume and deal with our waste and this man, Tom Szaky, an author, CEO and an eco-revolutionary, is here with an idea that could change everything. – The Loop Project.

The old days of a milk man delivering fresh milk and then recollecting empty bottles again can return, but this time in a way more life-changing way

Tom Szaky, entrepreneur, author and an ecological warrior, recently came up with a game-changing idea

Image credits: Tom Szaky

Tired of the impossibility of avoiding plastic waste while using certain necessary products

He came up with an idea on how to make reusable and refillable packaging the new norm by presenting the Loop project

Image credits: loopstore_us

Loop will work in a way that can be summed up with: “shop and enjoy, then we pick up and refill”, just like with milk in the old days

Firstly, the goods that customers ordered online will be presented to their doorstep in a reusable Loop Tote bag

And once the items are used up, you just place the empty packaging back in the same Loop bag and request a free pick up so they could collect it, clean it and refill it with the same product

Here’s a simplified scheme of the whole groundbreaking novelty

Among 25 brands that have joined the project are Evian, Oral-B, Clorox, Gillette, Dove and others

The project will kick off in May 2019 with only 5,000 customers in Paris and New York City to test the idea

London, Tokyo, San Francisco and further expansion is planned in the future

If the whole initiative proves to be successful, more brands will be included in the catalog, which means more reusable packaging used by more people

Loop’s aim is to eliminate the idea of waste and if successful, this is going to one giant leap for humanity into a waste-free future

TerraCycle's new circular shopping platform rescues big packaged brands from PR crisis Remember the sea turtle with a straw fused up its nose? The viral image that broke your heart and made you swear off straws? There’s more. On February 4, the UK’s RSPCA released the latest round of disturbing photos of wildlife – maimed seals, ducks, deer, even cats – ensnared in plastic bags, bottles and other snaggy remnants of our disposable economy. A flurry of British media headlines cut to the chase: record numbers of animals are killed or injured by plastic. It doesn’t take a PR insider to tell you that new reports of wildlife injured by plastic litter are sure to get packaged goods makers biting their nails and bracing for impact. With public outrage over disposable plastics growing steadily, major international brands have been under heavy pressure to rethink their packaging models. Over the last few months, the world’s largest consumer goods makers and sellers responded by announcing some surprisingly aggressive waste reduction targets. With some cajoling from the UK-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation, roughly 300 major corporations responsible for 20 per cent of the planet’s plastic packaging, including Unilever, Colgate, SC Johnson, H&M, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, signed onto a “new plastics economy” commitment. They’ve vowed to make sure all their plastic packaging is either recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. The targets are impressive. They’re also, as shareholder advocacy group As You Sow noted, aspirational. Making your plastic packaging recyclable is one thing. Making sure it all gets recycled is another, particularly with global recycling infrastructure in a free fall, as China and now Malaysia and soon Vietnam shut their doors to the planet’s less desirable recycling scraps. (Not to mention that 90 per cent of plastic is never shipped off to be recycled to begin with, regardless of whether it’s technically recyclable). Compostable packaging targets get messy, too, when you consider that many cities with curbside composting, such as Toronto, reject most certified compostable packaging (like, say, compostable coffee pods) in their green bins because they’re, in a nutshell, not compatible with their systems. That leaves the most meaningful option – and the gateway to a truly circular economy – behind door number three: reusable. Deposit return systems on refillable drink containers, including beer or milk bottles, have been the golden child of the circular economy since, well, the golden era of the milkman. Other circular economy darlings have usually been limited to companies that make products that can be taken back and/or and refurbished, like an old Patagonia coat. The idea has never really gained traction with the make ‘n toss packaged good set – until now. Enter Loop’s new “circular shopping platform” – heralded as the 21^st century milkman. But instead of a milk truck, your friendly neighbourhood UPS driver will be tasked with dropping off (and picking up) a leak-proof reusable LOOP box filled with an array of popular brands like Pantene, Tide, Seventh Generation, Dove, Tropicana, Nature’s Path, Body Shop and more so people can get everything from mayonnaise to deodorant in branded stainless steel, glass and refillable plastic containers – all within 48 hours of ordering. Once you’re done, call UPS for pick-up and the containers will be returned to Loop for sanitation then to manufacturers for refill. It’s a conscious consumer’s dream. It also sounds like a lot of greenhouse gas-intensive shipping. TerraCycle, the company behind Loop has said it’s calculated the total impact of its shopping platform and says that, overall, Loop products are 50 to 75 per cent better for the environment than conventional alternatives. Usman Valiante has his doubts. The senior policy analyst with Corporate Policy Group LLP has been involved in rolling out producer take-back initiatives in B.C. and Ontario and cautions that early carbon footprint estimates often miss the mark: “If you look at the greenhouse gas footprint of Amazon, online shop was supposed to reduce the amount of truck trips, when it’s actually done the opposite.” It would be “fine, if the entire transportation system ran on renewable energy,” says Valiante. “But it’s not.” Loop has argued that while it might add more delivery trucks to the road, it’s system will ultimately involve fewer garbage trucks. It also plans to break into brick-and-mortar retail outlets in the future. Loop’s real world GHG numbers will be crunched further during its trial run in New York and Paris starting this May. If all goes well, Loop trials will be coming to Toronto, Tokyo, San Fran and London next to much fanfare. Many of Loop’s early brand partners could no doubt use some good press. Coco-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, Mars, Clorox, Mondelēz have all been slammed by Greenpeace as the world’s largest contributors to the ocean plastic crisis. Their branded packaging has been turning up in Greenpeace ocean trash audits from Asia to Canada. It’s actually why Loop’s creator, Toronto-raised and Jersey-headquartered Tom Szaky reportedly pitched those brands first. Partnering with Loop doesn’t just save them from a PR crisis and position them as innovators. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has also been drawing corporate players to the circular economy table with the promise of boosted brand loyalty and deeper data dives on consumers. As Institute for Smart Prosperity’s Stephanie Cairns points out to, when people sign up to have weekly deliveries of Haagen-Dazs [the only ice cream brand in the Loop store so far], Nestle doesn’t just get brand loyalty, it starts amassing specific data about exactly who’s eating its ice cream and when. “For a lot of brands, this a very attractive idea,” says Cairns. TerraCycle (founded in 2001) has always known the power of flipping the script on branded packaged goods. One of the recycling company’s earliest upcycled products involved transforming old branded juice pouches into new branded tote bags. Okay, so not everyone wants to sling a Luna-wrapper-turned-messenger bag over their shoulder. But with TerraCycle’s new Loop initiative, they’ve figured out a classier way to close the loop on disposables, working with consumer good companies to develop sleek, branded reusable containers, on which deposits will be paid. The concept should test well with well-heeled, urban Aspirationals – the 40 per cent of people who, according to BBMG, wan­­t to buy from companies that do good. Particularly those Aspirationals already doing a lot of online shopping and feeling guilty about their packaging trail. But not every consumer will want to or can afford to fork out $20 for shipping and up to $10 per container on a deposit, which throws a bit of a wrench in the reach and scaleability of the model. For others, no amount of shiny reusable packaging will scrub the tarnish from the Coca-Colas and Nestles of the world. Emily Charles-Donelson works with Toronto Tool Library and Sharing Depot, where customers can borrow items and refill their own soap containers. She’s worried that Mondelēz, Clorox and friends will be selling Millennials more of the same old problematic products in feel-good packaging. “Loop’s reusable container program has the potential to significantly amplify the growing culture of reuse, moving us away from the erroneous notion that recycling is a viable solution to the waste crisis,” says Charles-Donelson. “Zooming out, however, LOOP is a halfway solution dreamed up within the parameters of the same broken corporate narrative that fueled the environmental crisis in the first place.” Can we buy our way out of this mess? Probably not, especially if we’re buying disposable paper towels and sewer-clogging antibacterial wipes in refillable containers. But at least we’re starting to come to terms with the glaring reality that we can’t recycle our way out. Until we’ve figured out a new green economy that isn’t so deeply hinged on ever more consumption, the world needs Loop and others like it to catch on, do well, scale up beyond the 20,000 stainless steel tubs of Häagen-Dazs being piloted (humans, after all, buy 13 billion litres of ice cream every year) and to thrive as one of many circular economy solutions around the globe. Maybe more than anything, we need the Loops, Tool Libraries and Sharing Depots of the world to be supported by ambitious and binding circular economy regulations, along the lines of what we’re seeing in Europe and the UK (we’re waiting on you, Canada).  At the moment, Cairns says, “We [in Canada] don’t have a public policy framework that’s going to easily enable a [refillable] product to come into the market and be collected through regular waste pick-up streams and recirculated back to suppliers.” “The Loop model really highlights the defects in Canada’s current system,” says Cairns, but she points out it also shows the potential that’s out there “if we unleash creative thinking out-of-the-box thinking.”s  

A new initiative by a small company has compelled more than two dozen of the world’s biggest brands to begin testing reusable packaging. Loop, launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has amassed a blue-chip roster of companies, all of which are piloting a new system of high-quality packaging that can be returned and refilled again and again. In essence, it changes the ownership model of packaging from consumer to producer. The big question is, will consumers buy into it? Today’s launch is the product of more than a year’s work by TerraCycle, the Trenton, New Jersey-based company that made a name for itself by turning hard-to-recycle waste (think juice boxes, coffee capsules, plastic gloves and cigarette filters) into new products. Along the way, the company, founded in 2001, has partnered with major consumer brands, retailers, manufacturers, municipalities and small businesses in more than 20 countries. Loop is the natural progression of that model, as well as the corporate relationships TerraCycle developed over the years. Its Loop partners include Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mars, Clorox, Coca-Cola, Mondelēz, Danone and a dozen or so smaller brands. European retailer Carrefour, logistics company UPS and resource management company Suez are also engaged in the system. The service will launch this spring in two markets: Ile-de-France, the region in north-central France surrounding Paris; and the New York region, which includes parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Initially, about 300 products will be available in durable, reusable containers, many created especially for Loop. "The key thesis statement is we can't just recycle our way out of the garbage crisis," Tom Szaky, TerraCycle’s CEO and co-founder, explained to me recently. "We need foundational changes. Our version of the foundational change is: How do we solve for disposability at the root cause, while matching the benefits?" Loop brings back the old 'milkman model,' where products are delivered to your door at the same time empties are picked up, washed, refilled and readied for delivery to another customer. Simply put, Loop brings back the old "milkman model," where products are delivered to customers at the same time empties are picked up, washed, refilled and restocked for delivery to another customer. The customer gets the product but the company owns the package. The reality is somewhat more complex. Loop initially will be an e-commerce play. Consumers can order goods from the Loop website or that of a partner and have them delivered like traditional products ordered online. But there’s a twist: Customers pay a small deposit for a package that has been designed for 100 or more use-cycles. When the container is empty, customers place it in a specially designed tote for pickup or, in some cases, can bring it to a retailer. They can choose whether they want that product replenished; if not, their deposit is returned or credited to their account. The empties are sent to a facility where they are washed and refilled. The entire process is handled by TerraCycle, from sale and delivery to package return and cleaning. In effect, TerraCycle is the online retailer, buying wholesale and selling retail. The package remains the property of the brand. Eventually, Loop will expand to include brick-and-mortar retailers — Carrefour and Tesco in Europe have signed on and expect to introduce Loop products in their stores later this year; a U.S. retail partner hasn’t yet been named. In that in-store version, consumers can bring empties back in a QR-embedded container provided by Loop. Scratching a niche The rebirth of reuse has been long coming. Since the dawn of the recycling movement about 30 years ago, companies have tried a number of schemes to enable consumers to use packaging over and over. One plan featured small packets of concentrated liquids used to refill a bottle of household cleaner — just add water to the concentrate and, voilá, a full bottle of a brand-name product. Another approach, refill stores, emerged in cities in Europe and North America, enabling consumers to bring their own container to buy bulk goods. Refill stations also are in traditional supermarkets and in some personal care retailers. But none of these has caught on beyond a tiny niche. Consumers, outside of a precious few hardcore greenies, don’t really want to be inconvenienced, much as they may be seeking to avoid wasteful practices. Loop’s approach seeks to overcome those obstacles. The key, said Szaky, is trying to mimic the way consumers already buy, use and dispose of packaging. We realized that recycling and using recycled content is about trying to do the best you can with waste, but it's not solving the foundational reason we have waste. "We realized that recycling and using recycled content is about trying to do the best you can with waste, but it's not solving the foundational reason we have waste. We did a lot of reflection on that and realized that the foundational cause of garbage is disposability and single-use. We tried to come up with a way to solve for disposability but maintain the virtues of disposability, which are convenience and affordability." Szaky explained that his goal with Loop was to make the system simple and familiar. "You get a box at your door with your stuff in it. Though it's better, because your box is durable, and you don't have to worry about recycling all that cardboard." Similarly on the back end. "We're trying to emulate the way you do your recycling at home. You take your used packages and you either put them in the recycling container or into your garbage bin. And then you lug it down to the curb and your recycling company or your garbage company takes it." With Loop, consumers put empties in a tote or other Loop-provided receptacle, which is picked up via UPS or another carrier, or dropped off at a retail partner," explains Szaky. "There's no washing, no cleaning required. Just like a disposable object, you throw it back into one of those durable shipping containers you would've received from us." Szaky envisions a "reuse bin" eventually showing up in homes alongside garbage and recycling bins. "And when we pick up, you have the option to have it set to auto-replenish, so that you can actually make your shopping even easier, because your empties trigger your re-orders." Counter-worthy Part of the magic of Loop is reusable packaging, designed in partnership with the brand owners to be not just durable, but "counter-worthy" — attractive enough to keep in plain view, in the words of Virginie Helias, vice president and chief sustainability officer at Procter & Gamble. "You want to show it to your friends." But, she adds, the appeal is not just aesthetic: "It's also the fact that it's a better premium experience for people." For P&G, that meant designing new packaging for the Loop platform. And, in some cases, inventing new products altogether. For example, the company developed a toothbrush called Click, part of the company’s Oral B line. "It's basically a new design that reduced the plastic by 60 percent because you have a durable handle which is made of composite material," explained Helias. "And there is a mechanism which we call Click Fits, which allows you to detach the head from the handle." A Loop tote for delivering products to consumers. Procter & Gamble, Loop’s biggest partner, which also owns a 2 percent stake in the enterprise, has tapped into 10 of its most iconic brands as part of the Loop launch, including Ariel, Cascade, Crest, Febreze, Gillette, Pantene, Pampers and Tide. "What was great to see was that most of our P&G categories were actually highly relevant for people in terms of having durable packaging," said Helias. Unilever, another Loop launch partner, is putting eight of its brands into the Loop platform, including Rexona, Dove and Axe deodorants; Signal toothpaste; Häagen Dazs ice cream; and Hellmann's mayonnaise. With the company’s deodorant brands, "The base of the stick packaging is now made from stainless steel. As you use the product, there's an insertable refill where you then give that back to us and then we send you a new one," explained David Blanchard, Unilever’s chief R&D officer. Like P&G’s Helias, Blanchard used the word "beautiful" repeatedly in our conversation to describe the company's various reusable packaging innovations, made from glass, aluminum, durable plastics and other materials. For example, regarding the deodorants, he said, "It's a beautifully crafted piece of packaging." Another Unilever innovation is Signal tooth tabs, an alternative to toothpaste. Essentially, it’s a small tablet of tooth powder you "chew, brush as usual, then rinse and smile," Blanchard explained. "We're creating a whole new format in a fully recyclable and refillable jar, so you get zero packaging, zero waste. It uses less water because of the way in which you simply put the product in your mouth and then clean and rinse." Will consumers buy in? No doubt, Loop is a well-designed system with a compelling offering and a powerhouse line-up of brands. But one key question remains: Will consumers buy in to reuse? It’s no small concern. Consumers — in Europe, North America, South America and Asia — repeatedly have foiled efforts by brands large and small to create products and delivery models that reduce waste, energy, water and other resources. In some cases, they believed that products were inferior or didn’t perform well. In others, the higher price was a barrier, and still others lacked the convenience of their conventional version. In many cases, consumers couldn't be bothered to change their well-worn habits. Szaky and his corporate partners believe they have thought through such pitfalls, although the Loop system hasn’t yet been tested in real-world settings. Szaky and his corporate partners seem to have thought through many of these downfalls, but the Loop system hasn’t yet been tested in real-world settings. Clearly, Loop’s big brand partners believe that their individual and combined efforts can break through. "It addresses a clearly growing expectation from people," says P&G’s Helias. "When we ask people about what's important for them, packaging now becomes intrinsically important. And the frustration with other packaging is becoming very close to other factors that we are hearing about in our studies." Unilever’s Blanchard agrees. "We think that about 25 percent of consumers today are looking to buy brands that have a more sustainable footprint or clearly have a purpose that resonates with them from a broad environmental sustainable purpose point of view. And then, there's probably another 50 percent of consumers who are then increasingly looking for brands to have that point of view or that sustainable footprint." There’s also comfort in numbers, he says. "We've looked at reuse in France. We're looking at a refill type of system in Vietnam. And we've not yet really cracked that business model. What Loop offered was the opportunity to be a part of a bigger consortium where consumers will get a much broader range of products. And therefore it gives them an opportunity to really do this with a bit more scale." Helias believes the reuse model has other benefits beyond the environmental ones. "You obviously develop a very intimate relationship with the consumer. And you build loyalty. It is all about enabling and inspiring responsible consumption, which is kind of our core agenda at P&G. And this addresses it beautifully. This is why we have so many brands excited about the idea." P&G, Unilever and the other partners will be watching the forthcoming launch closely, trying to discern what works. "I think the most important metric will be the depth of repeat," said Blanchard. "Do consumers come back to using these products time and time again? We would typically look to find at minimum a 50 percent repeat rate, so that half of those consumers over a period of time come back to use the product at least once, if not two or three times." And, of course, there are the environmental metrics. "It takes five Loop cycles of fill and reuse to be better from an environmental standpoint," said Helias. "We hope can go way beyond that but that's exactly why we are testing in market. It's to validate that assumption." Tom Szaky, for his part, is already looking ahead. "The next category, when we're ready, we want to test things like baby clothing and baby toys. We think there's a really good opportunity for this in what we call disposable durables. That's going to be a key question for us: How far and wide can this go?"