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."

McDonald’s reusable cup trial in the U.K. will be the first example of the fledgling Loop program trying its hand outside the grocery sector. Until now, it has focused on providing e-commerce grocery delivery in reusable, refillable packaging in parts of the United States, the U.K., and France. A company spokesperson said Loop remains on track to continue expanding those efforts. The partnership reflects the company’s propensity toward brand name partnerships, which stem from Loop’s need to increase the ubiquity of the service and achieve scale quickly. In a June interview, TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky hinted at the future partnership without naming the company, and said his vision was for the restaurant’s locations to act as collection points for any type of container purchased from any of Loop’s programs. “When they put Loop everywhere, it's going to send a message," he said at the time.

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.

With the restaurant industry currently being reinvented with to-go-first experiences in mind, there’s cause to worry that the shift will add even more single-use cups, straws, and boxes to our already bulging landfills. So it makes for a small silver lining that McDonald’s today announced a partnership with Terracycle’s zero-waste platform Loop to pilot a reusable cup model. The program will first be trialed at select McDonald’s in the UK in 2021. For a small deposit, customers will get a reusable Loop cup for their hot beverages. The deposit can be redeemed by returning the cup to any participating McDonald’s location, according to today’s press release. Loop will retrieve the used cups, wash them, and return them to the cycle. As to whether this reusable cup program will make its way to the States, a McDonald’s spokesperson said, “The feedback collected through these packaging trials will help inform which options are scaled up or adopted in other countries around the world.”

Kroger’s Simple Truth is the first store brand to develop a recycling program with TerraCycle, a company that for several years has been helping retailers and consumer goods brands recycle products that aren’t traditionally recyclable. The Simple Truth Recycling Program centers on its flexible packaging that’s not accepted in the curbside bin, including produce bags, bread bags and plastic overwrap found on items like tissue boxes and bottled water.

If you visit a McDonald’s in the U.K. early next year, you might notice a new option if you get a hot drink like coffee or hot chocolate: Instead of a typical disposable cup, you’ll have the choice to walk away with a reusable plastic cup and lid that you can later put in a special bin to be collected and sterilized for another customer. “Reuse is a really interesting, important tool in a suite of tools that we will need, and we’re exploring as we look to keep waste out of nature,” says Jenny McColloch, vice president of global sustainability at McDonald’s Corporation. The company is the first in the food service industry to partner with Loop, a company that also pioneered a new system of reusable packaging for mainstream consumer products like shampoo and ice cream from major brands. The pilot will test how Loop’s system could work in the context of fast food.

How did you come up with the idea for TerraCycle and Loop?

I got the idea for TerraCycle as a college freshman at Princeton University in 2001. The original business model was vermicomposting (converting garbage into worm poop), packaging it in used soda bottles and selling the resulting fertilizer. To find a larger supply of bottles, we created a national collection program, which was the precursor for our current free recycling programs. While we no longer produce fertilizer, we have moved into finding recycling solutions for some of the world’s toughest garbage problems, proving that everything is technically recyclable and developing solutions for nearly every waste stream you can think of, including drink pouches, used toothbrushes, cigarette butts and even dirty diapers. In short, TerraCycle takes waste that is not recyclable through conventional methods (i.e. your municipality’s curbside recycling program) and turns it into raw material that is then used to make new products. TerraCycle is operational in 21 countries. The idea for Loop emerged three years ago where TerraCycle and leading packaged goods manufacturers discussed the idea of restructuring the life cycle ownership of packaged goods to be durable and reusable. TerraCycle in partnership with 25 participating brands, including founding partners Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Nestle, officially unveiled the Loop platform during a panel discussion at the 2019 World Economic Forum.

Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. announced this week its new sustainable packaging goals that, according to anti-plastic activist group As You Sow, “fail to acknowledge the urgency of the plastic pollution crisis, and lag competitor commitments.” This statement came after As You Sow filed shareholder resolutions with Kroger, urging the company to make its private-label packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable. The proposals were strongly supported by shareholders, earning nearly 40% support in 2019 and 2020, according to the activist group, which typically puts forth proposals requiring a vote at shareholder corporate meetings. Regardless of the outcome, it’s never enough for As You Sow. “As the largest grocery retailer in the country, Kroger has a responsibility to be a leader in this space and set a high bar for sustainable packaging,” said Conrad McKerron, Senior Vice President of As You Sow. Kroger’s commitments “fall far short of what the company needs to be doing,” he added.