Eric Rosenbaum   KEY POINTS

• Terracycle and Loop founder and CEO Tom Szaky says the economics of the recycling business are broken in key ways, but consumer and corporate interest in building a circular economy continues to grow.
• Low oil prices, bans on imported recyclables in countries like China, and the latest trends in packaging design make it harder to recycle.
• Still, the recycling CEO says getting to a low-waste or even zero-waste economy is the way the world once was and can be again.

  Recycling may make you feel better in a very small way about your role in helping to avert a global apocalypse, but even in “friendly” places, from John Oliver to NPR podcasts, recycling, especially of plastics, is being given a hard look. More people are wondering: Does it work? The debate is not new. For years the economics of plastic recycling have been questioned. But the problem is not going away. The globe is already producing two trillion tons of solid waste a year and is on pace to add more than a trillion more on an annual basis in the coming decades, according to World Bank data. A recent study found that the 20 top petrochemical companies in the world, among the group Exxon Mobil and Dow, are responsible for 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste, and in the U.S., specifically, we are generating about 50 kilograms of throwaway plastic a year, per person. The Covid pandemic has heightened attention to the issue, as use of disposable goods went up anywhere from 30% to 50%, according to Tom Szaky, CEO of recycling companies Terracycle and Loop, who joined CNBC’s Leslie Picker on a recent CNBC Evolve Livestream about sustainability and business. He says concerns about the macroeconomics of waste management systems suffering economically are real, and there are ways to solve it that don’t just rely on government. We all need to take a deeper look at how we recycle beyond the feel-good blue bin, and what we can do to get past the problems. 1. The economics of recycling are broken. Szaky says recent reporting on the economic issues for plastics recycling and restrictions around the world on imported recyclables, which are both weighing on the sector, are not an anti-environmental attack but “absolutely rooted in facts.” He says it is important for consumers to understand that just because you recycle an item does not mean it will be recycled in the end. “What makes something be recycled in a country doesn’t have to do with what we normally think: Can it be recycled? Most of the things we put in blue bins that are not recycled are put in the garbage because they are things waste companies can’t make money off, and that is the true bottleneck,” he said. The right question is “Can a garbage company, the actual company in charge of the recycling in the geography, recycle it at a profit?” According to Szaky, what’s happened is a profitability model that is decreasing as oil prices have gone down, which started in 2015, and even after a commodities market recovery post-Covid, have stayed down relative to recent history. The petrochemicals companies that make plastics rely less on recyclables when the price of their core commodity, oil, is lower. Second, China stopped importing recyclable waste, a move followed by other countries in 2018. Both issues are critically important to the business model of recycling and the health of the infrastructure because they circle back around to how much demand there is to collect those material types. “And it all hurt the business construct for recycling companies and that means our recycling capabilities are deteriorating,” Szaky said. “Recycling is not out there trying to do the best it can but maximize profit and we need to think about that as we aim for a more circular economy,” he said. 2. A packaging industry mega trend is working against recycling The biggest global trend in packaging is not helping. Efforts to reduce costs in products and packaging are “objectively reducing value” Szaky said, “which also makes them less recyclable.” The “lightweighting” of packages, making them have less physical material and more complexity as a result of that design challenge, makes them less profitable to recycle. All of these economic issues lead to a situation in which what people would like to see is not what they would actually see if they went behind the scenes in the recycling industry. But Szaky says at the same time, consumers want to recycle more, and more companies are leaning into their own recycling. What companies decide to do about recycling on their own initiative — and pay for — can be done in spite of the challenging economics and can still pay off for the companies in the future. That’s the Terracycle business model, working with companies to fund their own voluntary recycling efforts. And that is more important at a time when the economics of consumer recycling are a mess. 3. Why companies don’t recycle enough, but should more Szaky says what’s really important right now is companies deciding to lean in and create their own recycling programs. But he says it is still not easy for the corporate mindset to embrace. “As a retailer or brand, if you just frame it as ‘the right thing to do’ the funding will be small and sporadic because there is no P&L logic to do it. But if you can use it to drive foot traffic like Walmart with car seats or Staples with pens, it can be monetizable,” he said. Brands that run their own recycling programs should be doing it as part of a plan to drive more market share and brand preference. And he says it becomes “monetizable in a recognizable way” the bigger they become and the faster they can grow. “That is true for any sustainability measure a company is looking to implement in the short term.” Some products won’t be recycled unless companies are the recycler. A dirty diaper or toothbrush or cigarette is not recyclable because it costs too much. It is another economic problem, not a physics or chemistry one. Terracycle recently launched a diaper recycling program in Holland and now it is expanding to many countries. “Diaper recycling doesn’t make sense from an economic perspective. It is expensive to collect and process,” Szaky said. But for the company that leads, “it can drive core value maybe better than TV ads,” he added. Consumers want to do the right thing, and companies may want to do the right thing as well in acknowledging an environmental crisis — and fund a feel-good marketing campaign — but Szaky stressed that they need to see “not just the right thing, but that it will pay back.” Szaky’s other business, Loop, which works with companies on circular economy production, recently teamed with a luxury watchmaker on the world’s tallest landfill: Mt. Everest. The mountain is littered with oxygen tanks from previous climbs and the watchmaker was able to both clean up the mess, an expensive undertaking, and source metal for its watches, which may add to the story it sells consumers in a way competitors can’t match. 4. The real solution is obvious: Consuming less The white elephant, the fundamental answer to the challenge, is modulating consumption downward, but Szaky says that is a hard one for the business world to champion. “It is fundamentally de-growth.” Loop, even working with companies to create products from recyclables and where the recycling is part of the product story and selling point, “is not the answer to the garbage problem,” he says. It may be among the best ways to manage waste in a circular economy, but Szaky says we will need to aim to go back to a world where garbage doesn’t exist. “Before the 1950s, we received milk from the milkman and mended clothes and cobbled shoes,” he says. Reuse does still exist at scale today in certain markets, such as beer kegs and propane tanks, but not nearly enough, and without the convenience of an infrastructure which makes return easy and widespread. That is one of the keys he sees for the future. 5. Reusable versus recyclable While the goal of zero waste is ambitious, it is realistic to imagine a world in which more consumer products become reusable, if they can be easily returned in the circular economy. Reusable versions of products from Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Walgreens, and hundreds of other retailers are being, or will in the future, be made available to consumers. We can switch a consumer who maybe doesn’t even care about sustainability and that’s frankly the most important. We need to bring everyone along, not just people who view this as a high-passion project. Szaky envisions the buy-and-return-anywhere model as a key one for the future. “Buy your favorite shampoo bottle in a reusable form at a Walgreens in New York and drop it off at Burger King and buy an Impossible Whopper in reusable packaging too, and drop that off somewhere else.” This model can help solve a big problem: consumer behavior. Szaky says while there is a significant consumer market motivated by environmental concerns and consumption, for the recycling industry to really work it needs to avoid relying on the most-motivated consumers. Even plastic recycling that is economic today, such as soda bottles, only results in 1 in 4 bottles being recycled. The No. 1 goal for most consumers will remain convenience and value. A reusable package is an upgrade over a disposable package in an objective way, and with the convenience of drop-off locations it can lead to an easier shift in behavior, but it has to be offered at the right value to consumers. “With all three things coming together we can switch a consumer who maybe doesn’t even care about sustainability and that’s frankly the most important,” Szaky said. “We need to bring everyone along, not just people who view this as a high-passion project.” 6. Economics are busted but the recycling mindset matters For all the debate over recycling and the hard facts about its economics, Szaky says there is a reason we talk about it so much. The individual journey with sustainability always begins with recycling. And that remains key and a reason to figure out how to fix its short-term and long-term challenges. When people start recycling, it does open the pathways to a broader change in mindset. “It may lead to a plant-based diet instead of animal protein, or a smaller life, or biking ... creating even more important outcomes,” he says. “But first we have to solve the business problem.”

Eric Rosenbaum   KEY POINTS

• Terracycle and Loop founder and CEO Tom Szaky says the economics of the recycling business are broken in key ways, but consumer and corporate interest in building a circular economy continues to grow.
• Low oil prices, bans on imported recyclables in countries like China, and the latest trends in packaging design make it harder to recycle.
• Still, the recycling CEO says getting to a low-waste or even zero-waste economy is the way the world once was and can be again.

  Recycling may make you feel better in a very small way about your role in helping to avert a global apocalypse, but even in “friendly” places, from John Oliver to NPR podcasts, recycling, especially of plastics, is being given a hard look. More people are wondering: Does it work? The debate is not new. For years the economics of plastic recycling have been questioned. But the problem is not going away. The globe is already producing two trillion tons of solid waste a year and is on pace to add more than a trillion more on an annual basis in the coming decades, according to World Bank data. A recent study found that the 20 top petrochemical companies in the world, among the group Exxon Mobil and Dow, are responsible for 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste, and in the U.S., specifically, we are generating about 50 kilograms of throwaway plastic a year, per person. The Covid pandemic has heightened attention to the issue, as use of disposable goods went up anywhere from 30% to 50%, according to Tom Szaky, CEO of recycling companies Terracycle and Loop, who joined CNBC’s Leslie Picker on a recent CNBC Evolve Livestream about sustainability and business. He says concerns about the macroeconomics of waste management systems suffering economically are real, and there are ways to solve it that don’t just rely on government. We all need to take a deeper look at how we recycle beyond the feel-good blue bin, and what we can do to get past the problems. 1. The economics of recycling are broken. Szaky says recent reporting on the economic issues for plastics recycling and restrictions around the world on imported recyclables, which are both weighing on the sector, are not an anti-environmental attack but “absolutely rooted in facts.” He says it is important for consumers to understand that just because you recycle an item does not mean it will be recycled in the end. “What makes something be recycled in a country doesn’t have to do with what we normally think: Can it be recycled? Most of the things we put in blue bins that are not recycled are put in the garbage because they are things waste companies can’t make money off, and that is the true bottleneck,” he said. The right question is “Can a garbage company, the actual company in charge of the recycling in the geography, recycle it at a profit?” According to Szaky, what’s happened is a profitability model that is decreasing as oil prices have gone down, which started in 2015, and even after a commodities market recovery post-Covid, have stayed down relative to recent history. The petrochemicals companies that make plastics rely less on recyclables when the price of their core commodity, oil, is lower. Second, China stopped importing recyclable waste, a move followed by other countries in 2018. Both issues are critically important to the business model of recycling and the health of the infrastructure because they circle back around to how much demand there is to collect those material types. “And it all hurt the business construct for recycling companies and that means our recycling capabilities are deteriorating,” Szaky said. “Recycling is not out there trying to do the best it can but maximize profit and we need to think about that as we aim for a more circular economy,” he said. 2. A packaging industry mega trend is working against recycling The biggest global trend in packaging is not helping. Efforts to reduce costs in products and packaging are “objectively reducing value” Szaky said, “which also makes them less recyclable.” The “lightweighting” of packages, making them have less physical material and more complexity as a result of that design challenge, makes them less profitable to recycle. All of these economic issues lead to a situation in which what people would like to see is not what they would actually see if they went behind the scenes in the recycling industry. But Szaky says at the same time, consumers want to recycle more, and more companies are leaning into their own recycling. What companies decide to do about recycling on their own initiative — and pay for — can be done in spite of the challenging economics and can still pay off for the companies in the future. That’s the Terracycle business model, working with companies to fund their own voluntary recycling efforts. And that is more important at a time when the economics of consumer recycling are a mess. 3. Why companies don’t recycle enough, but should more Szaky says what’s really important right now is companies deciding to lean in and create their own recycling programs. But he says it is still not easy for the corporate mindset to embrace. “As a retailer or brand, if you just frame it as ‘the right thing to do’ the funding will be small and sporadic because there is no P&L logic to do it. But if you can use it to drive foot traffic like Walmart with car seats or Staples with pens, it can be monetizable,” he said. Brands that run their own recycling programs should be doing it as part of a plan to drive more market share and brand preference. And he says it becomes “monetizable in a recognizable way” the bigger they become and the faster they can grow. “That is true for any sustainability measure a company is looking to implement in the short term.” Some products won’t be recycled unless companies are the recycler. A dirty diaper or toothbrush or cigarette is not recyclable because it costs too much. It is another economic problem, not a physics or chemistry one. Terracycle recently launched a diaper recycling program in Holland and now it is expanding to many countries. “Diaper recycling doesn’t make sense from an economic perspective. It is expensive to collect and process,” Szaky said. But for the company that leads, “it can drive core value maybe better than TV ads,” he added. Consumers want to do the right thing, and companies may want to do the right thing as well in acknowledging an environmental crisis — and fund a feel-good marketing campaign — but Szaky stressed that they need to see “not just the right thing, but that it will pay back.” Szaky’s other business, Loop, which works with companies on circular economy production, recently teamed with a luxury watchmaker on the world’s tallest landfill: Mt. Everest. The mountain is littered with oxygen tanks from previous climbs and the watchmaker was able to both clean up the mess, an expensive undertaking, and source metal for its watches, which may add to the story it sells consumers in a way competitors can’t match. 4. The real solution is obvious: Consuming less The white elephant, the fundamental answer to the challenge, is modulating consumption downward, but Szaky says that is a hard one for the business world to champion. “It is fundamentally de-growth.” Loop, even working with companies to create products from recyclables and where the recycling is part of the product story and selling point, “is not the answer to the garbage problem,” he says. It may be among the best ways to manage waste in a circular economy, but Szaky says we will need to aim to go back to a world where garbage doesn’t exist. “Before the 1950s, we received milk from the milkman and mended clothes and cobbled shoes,” he says. Reuse does still exist at scale today in certain markets, such as beer kegs and propane tanks, but not nearly enough, and without the convenience of an infrastructure which makes return easy and widespread. That is one of the keys he sees for the future. 5. Reusable versus recyclable While the goal of zero waste is ambitious, it is realistic to imagine a world in which more consumer products become reusable, if they can be easily returned in the circular economy. Reusable versions of products from Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Walgreens, and hundreds of other retailers are being, or will in the future, be made available to consumers. We can switch a consumer who maybe doesn’t even care about sustainability and that’s frankly the most important. We need to bring everyone along, not just people who view this as a high-passion project. Szaky envisions the buy-and-return-anywhere model as a key one for the future. “Buy your favorite shampoo bottle in a reusable form at a Walgreens in New York and drop it off at Burger King and buy an Impossible Whopper in reusable packaging too, and drop that off somewhere else.” This model can help solve a big problem: consumer behavior. Szaky says while there is a significant consumer market motivated by environmental concerns and consumption, for the recycling industry to really work it needs to avoid relying on the most-motivated consumers. Even plastic recycling that is economic today, such as soda bottles, only results in 1 in 4 bottles being recycled. The No. 1 goal for most consumers will remain convenience and value. A reusable package is an upgrade over a disposable package in an objective way, and with the convenience of drop-off locations it can lead to an easier shift in behavior, but it has to be offered at the right value to consumers. “With all three things coming together we can switch a consumer who maybe doesn’t even care about sustainability and that’s frankly the most important,” Szaky said. “We need to bring everyone along, not just people who view this as a high-passion project.” 6. Economics are busted but the recycling mindset matters For all the debate over recycling and the hard facts about its economics, Szaky says there is a reason we talk about it so much. The individual journey with sustainability always begins with recycling. And that remains key and a reason to figure out how to fix its short-term and long-term challenges. When people start recycling, it does open the pathways to a broader change in mindset. “It may lead to a plant-based diet instead of animal protein, or a smaller life, or biking ... creating even more important outcomes,” he says. “But first we have to solve the business problem.”

As shopping from home grows, packaging waste is piling up. Loop offers an alternative: a delivery service for food and home goods that picks up used product packaging, then cleans and reuses it to eliminate trash. Earth911 talks with Heather Crawford, global vice president of marketing and e-commerce at Loop, about the company’s expansion into Canada. Loop now offers service in the U.S., U.K., and France. Its Loop Tote bag is dropped off and picked up by FedEx, and it will soon offer in-store Tote exchanges at Kroger, Walgreens, and Canada’s Loblaws locations. Crawford shares how Loop, which was launched by specialty recycling company TerraCycle, designs reusable packaging that can be repeatedly cleaned and refilled with products in order to reduce post-consumer waste. We also discuss the sustainability of online shopping and how, at scale, it can be more efficient than traditional bricks-and-mortar retail shopping. Loop is partnering with several grocery and drugstore chains to introduce in-store Tote pick-up and drop-off services. Both at-home and retail services are essential to reaching consumers who want to remove single-use packaging from their shopping list. Loop currently offers hundreds of product options and is expanding its partnerships with food and personal care brands to introduce more reusable product packaging. Take a few minutes to learn more at the U.S. Loop store, Canadian store, U.K. store, or the French store.

TerraCycle’s milkman-like delivery model, Loop, expands online and at brick-and-mortar locations. Kate Bertrand Connolly 1 | Nov 04, 2020 Following a successful pilot program that started in 2019, the Loop circular shopping platform from TerraCycle has expanded its online operation to provide an unlimited number of US consumers from coast to coast with home delivery of products packed in reusable packaging, as well as pickup of the empty packages. Loop also made its brick-and-mortar debut recently, in France. “Carrefour just brought Loop into its first store,” says Eric Rosen, publicist, US public relations, for Loop/TerraCycle. “We anticipate Loop being in-store in other retailers in 2021.” Carrefour’s online Loop service launched in Paris last year. Following a successful pilot program that started in 2019, the Loop circular shopping platform from TerraCycle has expanded its online operation to provide an unlimited number of US consumers from coast to coast with home delivery of products packed in reusable packaging, as well as pickup of the empty packages. Loop also made its brick-and-mortar debut recently, in France. “Carrefour just brought Loop into its first store,” says Eric Rosen, publicist, US public relations, for Loop/TerraCycle. “We anticipate Loop being in-store in other retailers in 2021.” Carrefour’s online Loop service launched in Paris last year. In the United States, consumers will find Loop products at Kroger stores starting in 2021. Also in North America, Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurants plan to launch Loop pilot projects next year. Loop’s online scale-up coincides with an explosion in internet shopping and home delivery fueled by the COVID-19 virus, though it’s also a natural next step considering the success of the pilot program. More than 100,000 people have signed up for the service to date. With the online version of Loop, consumers buy products that have been filled into reusable packaging made, for example, of metal or glass. They then return the empty packages to Loop, which cleans the packages for refilling by Loop’s brand partners. Loop packs consumer orders into reusable totes for delivery, and consumers return the empty packaging to Loop using the same totes. Loop products are packed and shipped from the company’s New Jersey warehouse to all US ZIP codes. (Frozen products are only shipped to locations where delivery can be made within 24 hours.) The platform launched in 2019 as a pilot program in the Mid-Atlantic United States and Paris, France. In July 2020, Loop launched online in the United Kingdom, working in partnership with retailer Tesco. A Canadian online launch is planned for Toronto in February 2021. Loop has expanded rapidly vis-à-vis brand partners and product selection, now offering more than 80 brands and 400 products in the United States and Europe. Product categories include grocery, beauty, health and personal care, and household essentials. Brand owners range from giants like Nestlé and Procter & Gamble to start-ups like Soapply. Next year will be an important one for Loop in brick-and-mortar restaurants and stores. Burger King plans to start a pilot Loop program in 2021 that will offer eat-in and to-go customers sandwiches and drinks packed in returnable, reusable food containers and cups. Consumers who choose the reusable packaging will pay a deposit when they place their order and get the deposit back after returning the packaging to Burger King. The pilot will start in select Burger King restaurants in New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Tokyo, with additional cities to join in the months that follow. Canada’s Tim Hortons quick-service restaurant chain has announced a similar Loop pilot. The program will start in 2021 at select Tim Hortons restaurants in Toronto. Also starting next year, US consumers will be able to visit Loop in-store at select Kroger locations. The plan for Loop in brick-and-mortar stores is not only to sell Loop products but also to collect the empty packaging for cleaning and reuse. Loop publicist Rosen discusses the program’s burgeoning expansion, both online and in-store, in this exclusive Packaging Digest Q&A. How many brick-and-mortar retailers in the United States will be selling Loop products in 2021? Is this a channel Loop is interested in exploring further? What have consumers said about their willingness (or not) to take empty packages back to a physical store? Rosen: As of now, in the United States, there will be one brick-and-mortar retailer, Kroger, selling Loop products in-store in 2021. There are, however, many retailers who are and will be integrating Loop into their ecommerce platforms. Yes, [in-store] is a channel Loop is pursuing and will continue to pursue. In fact, Loop just opened in its first brick-and-mortar retailer — Carrefour in France. As for consumers’ willingness to take empties back to a physical store, while we haven’t surveyed consumers, we believe returning empty packaging will be embraced. When will Loop be expanding into additional markets in Europe and Asia, either online or via brick-and-mortar stores? Rosen: Loop will be launching in Canada, Australia, and Japan in 2021. We will continue to seek opportunities to launch in other countries and will be announcing more as we solidify plans. How will Loop, brand owners, and/or retailers educate consumers about how in-store Loop works and its benefits? Rosen: Loop, brand owners, and retailers educate consumers through websites, social media, and earned media placements in outlets worldwide.

Now that the Loop program is national in the United States, how many locations are cleaning the empty, returned packages?

Rosen: In the United States, the cleaning facility is in Pennsylvania. We will be adding facilities as we scale.

What, if anything, has changed in the logistics of the Loop program (outgoing and incoming packages)? What, if anything, has changed with the lifecycle analysis of the packages sold in the Loop program because of the additional distances?

Rosen: Nothing has changed in the logistics. Based on Loop’s third-party lifecycle analysis, creating a durable (or “reusable”) container uses more energy and resources than creating a disposable (or “single-use”) container. However, over time, the reusable container has a lower environmental and economic cost, as it does not need to be remanufactured on every use. Instead, it is transported and cleaned, which is a much lower environmental cost. According to Loop, the efficiency of a reusable package in Loop is even more evident as consumers participate repeatedly. After two to three uses of the packaging, the environmental impact is breakeven. By 10 uses, there is a more than 35% reduction in environmental impacts.

Are all products still being shipped to consumers from Loop’s New Jersey warehouse? Is that still the plan moving forward, to have just one warehouse?

Rosen: Loop’s New Jersey warehouse ships all products in the United States. As we scale, we intend to have additional warehousing in other parts of the country. The Loop warehouse in France is in Lille, and the one in the United Kingdom is in Crick.

How well are the durable packages holding up to use, cleaning, and reuse? Are the brands getting the number of uses they hoped they would?

Rosen: The durable packaging is holding up well as it goes through Loop cycles. I can’t comment on the brands, and what their expectations were/are.

Is UPS still Loop’s only partner for deliveries/pickups? Are there any plans for additional delivery services to be involved, especially as volumes and delivery areas are growing?

Rosen: Yes, Loop’s US logistics partner is UPS. In France, it’s Colisweb, and in the UK, it’s DPD. There are no plans for additional delivery services to be involved.

The allergen warning on the Loop website states: “Please note that the Loop Tote is packed in a facility that may have handled wheat, milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, and soy, and may contain traces of the same. If you or someone in your family has a serious food allergy, Loop may not be for you.” Are there any plans to address this, so people can safely order Loop products without worry from allergens?

Rosen: There are no current plans to address this.

Who designs the Loop packages?

Rosen: Each brand partner is responsible for the design of its packaging. All packaging must be approved by Loop.

What is the size range of Loop packages?

Rosen: The smallest container is 20 ml (less than an ounce) for Tea Tree Oil from The Body Shop. The biggest package is an 8-lb container for kitty litter from Purina.

How have consumers reacted to Loop since its launch last year?

Rosen: We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to Loop since its launch. In fact, meeting consumer demand is what led to the rapid expansion — from 10 states to every ZIP code in the contiguous 48 states. We have more than 100,000 sign-ups, and that continues to grow.    

TerraCycle’s reuse platform Loop is now available online in every ZIP code in the 48 contiguous states, a major milestone after the program first launched in 2019. Kroger and Loblaw are partners of the platform, among other retailers, and a TerraCylce representative recently told Store Brands that it would be developing a reusable container for select private brands to buy at those physical stores in 2021. The Loop program began in the Northeastern United States and Paris, France, and entered the United Kingdom in July, working with more than 80 brands and 400 products globally. More than 100,000 people have signed up for the service. Loop enables shoppers to buy brands in a durable, reusable package. It’s a circular system, designed to end single-use packaging. For example, a shopper can buy a silver tin for Haagen-Dazs ice cream that was developed with Loop from a retailer like Kroger or Walgreens, which gets shipped by Loop (or picked up at the store) and then shopper returns the container when done through Loop’s shipping system to get it refilled. The company likens it to the days of the milkman.

Loop is taking its effort to curb single-use packaging national with expansion to 48 states. After a successful pilot run, the revamped “milkman” delivery and e-commerce platform — which helps to repackage beauty and consumer goods into reusable and refillable packaging — is looking to facilitate greater circularity. New Jersey-based company TerraCycle first tested its Loop venture in New York City, and later diffused the premise of circularity to consumers in the mid-Atlantic and abroad to Paris and, most recently, the U.K. And both brands and consumers are biting. “Consumers across the country have urged us to bring Loop to them so we’ve scaled as quickly as possible to make that happen,” Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive officer of Loop and TerraCycle, said in a statement.

Loop, the worldwide circular-shopping platform rolled out last year by Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle, is now available in every ZIP code in the 48 contiguous states. Since its launch in the northeastern United States and Paris, with subsequent expansion to the United Kingdom this past July, Loop has experienced considerable growth of its brand partners and product assortment: It now offers more than 80 brands and 400 products globally, and more than 100,000 people enrolled to receive the service. Loop allows consumers to shop for brands in sturdy packaging that’s reused until the end of its life, resulting in a circular system that aims to supplant disposable single-use packaging. The service features international companies such as Unilever and Nature’s Path and small independently owned businesses alike. “Consumers across the country have urged us to bring Loop to them, so we’ve scaled as quickly as possible to make that happen,” explained Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Loop and TerraCycle. With consumers shopping more and more online this year, the need for our sustainable, waste-free solution has become even more important.”

Circular shopping platform Loop, which was launched last year by TerraCycle, is now available in every zip code in the 48 contiguous states. Since its launch in 2019 in the Northeast US and Paris, and, most recently in the UK in July, Loop has seen substantial growth in its brand partners and product assortment; there are now more than 80 brands and 400 products globally and more than 100,000 people signed up for the service. “Consumers across the country have urged us to bring Loop to them so we’ve scaled as quickly as possible to make that happen,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Loop and TerraCycle. With consumers shopping more and more online this year, the need for our sustainable, waste-free solution has become even more important." In the US, Loop consumers can order more 100 products from more than 30 brands in categories ranging from beauty to grocery to household goods with that assortment expected to double by year’s end, said TerraCycle. While available solely online today, Loop will be available in-store when it is embedded in its retail partners brick and mortar spaces in 2021, said the firm. Next year, consumers will be able to shop for Loop products in select Kroger stores in the United States. Also in 2021,Loop is scheduled to expand to Canada, Australia and Japan.

Loop, the global circular shopping platform from TerraCycle, is now available in every zip code in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. The service now features more than 80 brands and 400 products globally, including France and the United Kingdom, with more than 100,000 people signed up for the service. Loop facilitates shopping for products featuring durable, reusable packaging, attempting to do away with single-use formats while also simplifying the recycling of durable packaging. Participating companies include Unilever, Melanin Essentials and Soapply. U.S. consumers can currently order more than 100 products from more than 30 brands in beauty and other categories. The assortment will double by the end of 2020, per Loop. In 2021, Loop will expand from online-only to brick-and-mortar retail partnerships, including some Kroger stores. Next year, Loop is also expanding to Canada, Australia and Japan. “Consumers across the country have urged us to bring Loop to them so we’ve scaled as quickly as possible to make that happen,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Loop and TerraCycle. "With consumers shopping more and more online this year, the need for our sustainable, waste-free solution has become even more important."

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that health concerns are currently driving consumer behaviors and purchases in today’s marketplace. Research conducted by Paris-based Ipsos in July showed that 85% of consumers are concerned about the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the Washington, D.C.-based International Food Information Council, that same percentage of consumers (85%) reported that they’ve changed the way they eat or prepare food in the wake of the pandemic. While the novel coronavirus is a major, and arguably overriding, worry, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t making decisions based on other timely situations, from social issues to environmental concerns.